f    LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM 


ITS  PURPOSE  AND  ITS  STRUCTURE 


A  Study 


JOHN   F.  GENUNG 


BOSTON 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

New  York:   11   East  Seventeenth  Street 

(3Tfoe  fttoewi&e  prcs£,  Cambridge 

1896 


Copyright,  1883, 
BY  JOHN  F.  GENUNG. 

All  rights  reserved. 


EIGHTH  EDITION. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


To 
MY  WIFE, 

IN   RECOGNITION  OF  WHAT  THE  GROWTH  OF  THIS  BOOK 
OWES  TO   HER. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

Page 
IN  MEMORIAM  AS  RELATED  TO  ITS  AGE  ...  9 

IN  MEMORIAM  AS  RELATED  TO  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  POET'S 

MIND  ......  .       14 

THE  PURPOSE  OF   IN   MEMORIAM. 

IN  MBMORIAM  AS  AN  ELEGY.  —  LYCIDAS.    ADONAIS          .        .    31 

IN  MEMORIAM  AS  A  MEMORIAL  OP  FRIENDSHIP. — SHAKE- 
SPEARE'S SONNETS 40 

IN  MEMORIAM  AND  THE  LEADING  THOUGHTS  OF  THE  POET'S 
CONTEMPORARY  WORKS 47 

HOW  THE  SPIRIT  OP  THE  TIME  INFLUENCED  THE  PURPOSE  OF 
IN  MEMORIAM 59 

THE  POEM'S  OWN  INDICATIONS  OP  ITS  PURPOSE       ...        68 

THE  STRUCTURE  OF   IN  MEMORIAM. 
HINT"  OP  ITS  STRUCTURE  GATHERED  FROM  THE  POEM       .       .    83 
OUTLINE  OF  ITS  STRUCTURE 89 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PROLOGUE      . 96 

INTRODUCTORY  STAGE 104 

FIRST  CYCLE 118 

SECOND  CYCLE 151 

THIRD  CYCLE 173 

EPILOGUE »     ' .        ,      xg6 


TENNYSON'S  IN   MEMORIAM. 


"  Strange  friend,  past,  present,  and  to  be  ; 
Loved  deeplier,  darklier  understood  ; 
Behold,  I  dream  a  dream  of  good, 
And  mingle  all  the  world  with  thee" 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 


A  STUDY  of  Tennyson's  In  Memo-  in 

am  as  an- 

riam,  in  order  adequately  to  fulfill  its  Bering  to 

the  reltgtout 

object,  must  be  as  truly  a  study  of  the  spirit  of  it* 

•>  J  time. 

age  as  of  the  poem.  For  the  poem 
stands  inseparably  related  to  what  is 
deepest  and  most  vital  in  the  thought 
of  its  time  ;  of  an  age  whose  devout 
minds  are  confessedly  eager  and  ear- 
nest in  the  quest  of  eternal  truth  it 
is  preeminently  the  poetical  exponent. 
This  is  evident  in  the  fact  that  ever 
since  its  first  publication  in  1850  it 
has  been  the  treasure  -  house  from 
which  all  reverent  thinkers  have 
drawn  copiously  not  only  for  felici- 
tous expression  of  truths  not  easily 
i 


IO  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO RI AM. 

crystallized  in  words,  but,  what  is 
more  significant,  often  for  the  very 
spirit  and  mould  of  their  deepest 
thoughts.  For  this  reason  it  seems 
to  me  timely  to  inquire  what  In  Me- 
moriam  actually  contributes  to  the 
thought  of  its  time,  how  much  and 
how  truly  ;  and  with  this  inquiry, 
which  must  largely  be  shaped  by  the 
question  of  its  structure,  must  be  con- 
joined the  question  how  it  comes  that 
a  simple  memorial  of  love  and  death 
should  be  the  most  influential  poem 
of  the  century,  —  which  latter  inquiry 
may  perhaps  best  be  answered  through 
a  study  of  its  purpose. 
Mart  intuit1  s  As  long  ago  as  1 8156  a  careful  ob- 

Essays,  J 

vol. i. p. 331.  server  of  the  times  wrote:  "Few 
thoughtful  men,  who  have  lived  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, can  fail  to  be  more  or  less  aware 
of  a  vast  change  in  the  religious  ideas 
and  spirit  of  the  time,  —  a  change 
surely  to  a  higher  mood  of  faith,  and 
even  of  doubt."  These  words  are  not 


TENNYSOATS  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 1 

less  but  more  true  today  than  when 
they  were  first  written ;  they  may  serve 
indeed  equally  well  to  record  what 
further  change  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  has  to  show,  for  it  is  but  the 
change  of  advancing  development.  It 
is  not  the  place  here  to  describe  at 
length  the  character  of  this  change ; 
but  a  word  of  definition  seems  neces- 
sary tO  Our  purpose.  It  is  a  Super-  Character 

ficial  view,  I  think,  which  holds  as  * 
its  characteristic  that  old  beliefs  are 
ruthlessly  torn  away,  or  that  what  has 
long  been  held  sacred  is  becoming 
less  so.  Any  such  tendency  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  religious  world  is  not 
to  be  taken  as  the  disposition  of  its 
centre  and  heart.  There  is  a  too  wide- 
spread inquiry  after  "whatsoever  things 
are  true  "  to  consent  that  such  be  the 
reigning  spirit  of  the  age.  But  there 
is  and  has  long  been  a  growing  dis- 
position to  think  out  old  truths  in  new 
terms,  to  re-interpret,  as  it  were  by 
methods  of  spiritual  science,  the  death- 


12  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

less  ideas  of  God  and  revelation,  and 
to  discern,  not  only  by  the  deliver- 
ances of  logic  but  by  the  fine  tactile 
instinct  of  the  heart,  wherein  they  are 
true  to  God  and  true  to  human  na- 
ture. In  this  prevailing  inquiry  there 
is  often  a  boldness  which  once  may 
well  have  been  startling ;  but  there  is 
also  a  devoutness,  which  makes  the 
work  on  the  whole  much  more  crea- 
tive than  destructive.  And  we  are 
surely  right  in  calling  this  new  mood 
of  faith  higher.  Vague  and  tentative 
may  be  many  of  its  present  aspects, 
for  the  end  is  not  yet;  but  it  is  full 
of  life  and  promise ;  its  gropings, 
being  "  blindly  wise,"  will  end  in 
light. 

The  foregoing  words  are  meant  to 
describe  the  religious  attitude  of  the 
present  age ;  but  they  also  describe, 
Temper  and  and  with  equal  exactness,  the  temper 
s&moriam.  and  tone  of  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam. 
If  now  we  look  back  toward  the  begin- 
ning of  this  growing  era  of  thought,  we 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  13 

find  the  poem  closely  identified  with 
it  throughout.  It  was  by  no  means 
accidental  that  from  its  first  appear- 
ance the  poem  found  recognition  as 
fully  at  one  with  advancing  ideas,  and 
that  it  gave  to  them  an  articulation 
and  expression  vainly  sought  before. 
The  cause  may  be  understood  when 
we  trace  that  long  period  of  seventeen 
years,  from  Arthur  Hallam's  death  in 
1833,  to  the  publication  of  In  Memo- 
riam  in  1850,  during  which,  while  the 
age  was  becoming  aware  of  its  deepest 
spiritual  problems,  the  poem  also  was 
progressing  point  by  point  toward 
completion.  In  those  years  Tenny- 
son was  living  through  in  person  what 
was  afterward  to  be  reproduced  in  the 
spirit  of  the  time.  Bereavement  and 
sorrow  had  given  him  the  impulse  to 
seize  and  solve  the  problems  of  life ; 
and  this  he  consciously  did  not  merely 
for  his  own  but  for  his  brethren's 
sake ;  and  so  in  his  long  secret  med- 
itation thoughts  were  suggested  and 


14  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

ripened  which  were  to  be  a  power  on 
his  fellows.  Nor  was  the  age  far  be- 
hind him.  Even  as  he  wrought,  he 
was  surrounded  by  the  gray  of  a  new 
morning ;  to  him  it  was  merely  given 
to  catch  from  the  heights  of  poetic 
vision  the  first  gleams  of  the  dawn. 
True  as  it  is,  therefore,  that  in  a  sense 
Tennyson  led  his  age,  it  is  yet  truer 
to  say  \izfound  his  age,  —  gave  quick- 
ening and  impulse  to  what  already 
existed  in  many  minds,  germinating 
deeply  and  waiting  for  vital  expres- 
sion. It  is  for  this  reason  that  when 
the  poem  emerged  from  its  long  period 
of  secret  growth  it  became  at  once  the 
mould  which,  beyond  any  other  single 
work  of  literature,  has  till  this  day 
given  shape  to  the  religious  thought 
of  the  time. 

II. 

inMemori-       A  poem  that  has  taken  such  deep 

am  as  relat- 

tdtothe       \\o\d  of  its  age  must,  as  a  matter  of 

growth  of  ' 

tktfott*      course,  be  yet  more  deeply  influential 

mind. 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 5 

in  determining  the  poet's  own  develop- 
ment. A  glance  at  Tennyson's  work 
from  the  beginning  of  his  poetic  career 
to  1850  will  show  very  significantly 
what  an  important  part  the  medita- 
tion and  composition  of  In  Memoriam 
must  have  played  in  the  growth  of 
his  mind  and  art. 

The  first  period  of  Tennyson's  po-  Tennyson's 

3  r        early  poetic 

etic  work  comprises  the  poems  pub-  work. 
lished  before  1833,  tne  year  °f  Arthur 
Hallam's  death.  Of  these,  a  mention 
will  suffice  for  "  Poems  by  Two  Broth- 
ers "  (Alfred  and  Charles  Tennyson), 
published  anonymously  in  1827,  and 
the  Cambridge  Prize  poem  "  Tim- 
buctoo,"  published  in  1829.  The  first 
publication  in  which  Tennyson  seri- 
ously challenged  the  attention  of  the 
world  was  a  small  volume,  published 
in  1830,  entitled  "  Poems,  chiefly  Lyr- 
ical," and  sent  forth  in  place  of  a  vol- 
ume which,  but  for  the  dissuasion  of 
a  relative,  would  have  contained  the 
joint  works  of  Alfred  Tennyson  and 


1 6  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

t  Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  Among  the 

reviewers  of  this  volume  was  the  latter 
named,  whose  friendly  eye  recognizes 
Tennyson  as  "  a  poet  in  the  truest  and 
highest  sense."  Both  reviewed  and 
reviewer  attracted  only  moderate  at- 
tention at  the  time;  but  the  present 
world  will  discern  as  much  true  crit- 
ical sense  as  friendship  in  these  words 

A.H.Hal.   Of  Hallam's:  "In  these  'preludes  of 

lam •  s  Re- 
mains, pp.     a  loftier  strain '  we  recognize  the  in- 

303>  304- 

spiring  God.  .  .  .  He  sees  all  the 
forms  of  nature  with  the  'eruditus 
oculus,'  and  his  ear  has  a  fairy  fine- 
ness. There  is  a  strange  earnestness 
in  his  worship  of  beauty  which  throws 
a  charm  over  his  impassioned  song, 
more  easily  felt  than  described,  and 
not  to  be  escaped  by  those  who  have 
once  felt  it."  This  was  written  in 
1831.  Tennyson's  second  volume, 
entitled  simply  "  Poems,  by  Alfred 
Tennyson,"  appeared  in  1832.  Soon 
after,  early  in  1833,  "The  Lover's 
Tale "  was  printed,  but  withdrawn 
from  publication. 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  17 

All  the  above  -  mentioned  works, 
while  they  are  indeed  no  unworthy 
basis  of  a  great  poet's  fame,  must  be 
regarded  as  of  importance  chiefly  as 
foretelling  other  and  riper  things. 
Hallam  gave  them  the  right  name, 
'  preludes  of  a  loftier  strain.'  Ex- 
quisite indeed  they  are,  but  like  the 
recreations  of  a  musician,  who  before 
he  commits  himself  to  a  strenuous  ef- 
fort will  assure  himself  of  touch  and 
tone.  They  are  for  the  most  part 
carefully  elaborated  studies  in  the 
musical  capabilities  of  word  and  fan- 
cy, the  perfecting  of  artistic  models 
while  the  thought  to  be  shaped  is  yet 
to  come.  Nor  is  the  deeper  thought 
long  in  coming ;  there  are  signs  that 
the  poet  was  growing  into  it,  even  be- 
fore it  was  precipitated  so  rudely  by 
bereavement. 

We  come  now  to  the  seventeen  years  Ye *«<&»•. 

tng  which 

which   cover    the  growth   of    the   In  In  Memor*. 

am  was 

Memoriam.      These  years    fall    into 
two  nearly  equal  periods. 


1 8  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

To  the  first  period,  which  comprises 
the  nine  years  succeeding  the  death 
of  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  the  limit  is 
set  by  the  poet  himself ;  see  Epi- 
logue to  In  Memoriam,  stanzas  3-6. 
18*3-1842.  This  period  he  characterizes  as  a  time 
at  the  beginning  of  which  he  had  ex- 
pressed, with  such  broken  utterance 
as  he  could  command,  a  sudden  and 
overwhelming  grief  in  song ;  but  as 
time  passed  the  "  wild  and  wandering 
cries  "  of  sorrow  gradually  spent  them- 
selves, and  his  utterance  became  more 
coherent  and  natural,  until  at  the  end 
of  the  period  the  succeeding  calm  has 
become  so  settled  and  restful  that  the 
songs  of  that  first  time  seem  already 
far  away  and  strange.  In  those  nine 
years  belong  certainly  those  parts  of 
In  Memoriam  which  give  utterance  to 
the  aimless  moods  of  sorrow  as  they 
rise ;  which  seem  to  be  borne  arbitra- 
rily hither  and  thither,  without  definite 
object,  without  logical  arrangement, 
as  if  they  had  no  point  on  which  to 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  19 

steady  themselves.  How  far  their 
real  character  answers  to  this  seem- 
ing we  shall  have  occasion  to  see ; 
such  character  at  least  is  all  that  the 
poet  himself  attributes  to  them ;  and 
persons  who  take  up  In  Memoriam 
for  a  leisure  hour  or  for  a  cursory 
reading  not  infrequently  obtain  this 
impression  of  it. 

Of  this  same  period,  however,  we 
have  other  witness,  such  witness  as 
makes  the  poet's  own  characterization 
doubly  interesting.  As  is  well  known, 
those  nine  years  were  a  period  of  al- 
most unbroken  silence  on  the  poet's 
part,  his  only  publications  in  all  that 
time  being  two  short  lyrics.  In  1842 
the  silence  was  broken  by  the  appear- 
ance of  a  new  two-volume  edition  of 
Tennyson's  works,  that  edition  in 
which  the  world  first  read  such  poems 
as  "Two  Voices,"  "  Locksley  Hall," 
"  Love  and  Duty,"  "  Morte  d'Arthur," 
"  Ulysses."  These  poems  show  every- 
where, in  the  greater  maturity  of  their 


2O  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

art,  and  especially  in  the  greater  depth 
and  firmness  of  their  thought,  how 
well  the  silent  period  had  been  em- 
ployed. It  was  evident  that  some 
solemnizing  influence  had  wrought  in 
the  poet's  genius  to  give  it  steadiness 
and  greatness.  The  following  appre- 
ciative words,  written  of  Tennyson  in 
August,  1842,  will  indicate  with  what 
satisfaction  the  new  volumes  were  re- 
Memoirs  of  ceived  :  "  Much  has  he  thought,  much 

Margaret 

Fuller  ps:    suffered,  since  the  first  ecstasy  of  so 

salt,  vol.  u. 

P-  66-  fine  an  organization  clothed  all  the 
world  in  rosy  light.  He  has  not  suf- 
fered himself  to  become  a  mere  intel- 
lectual voluptuary,  nor  the  songster  of 
fancy  and  passion,  but  has  earnestly 
revolved  the  problems  of  life,  and  his 
conclusions  are  calmly  noble."  With 
this  testimony  it  is  interesting  to  com- 
pare the  poet's  own  words  concerning 
himself,  dating  from  the  same  year. 
In  the  stanzas  of  the  epilogue  already 
referred  to,  as  he  looks  back  over  the 
time  that  is  gone,  with  its  valuable 
though  sad  experience,  he  says  :  — 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  21 

"  Regret  is  dead,  but  love  is  more  .     ,,, 

In  Memon- 
Than  in  the  summers  that  are  flown,  arn<  Epi- 

For  I  myself  with  these  have  grown  logue,  St.  5,  6. 

To  something  greater  than  before ; 

"  Which  makes  appear  the  songs  I  made 
As  echoes  out  of  weaker  times, 
As  half  but  idle  brawling  rhymes, 
The  sport  of  random  sun  and  shade." 

Thus  what  the  poet  confesses  and 
what  the  world  has  discovered  agree 
in  one.  Something  in  those  silent 
years,  more  than  the  ordinary  experi- 
ences of  a  quiet  life,  has  given  a  deep 
undertone  of  solemnity  to  his  song ;  by 
some  severe  test  of  experience  he  has 
proved  true  what  he  held  in  his  yet 
untroubled  days  :  — 

"  That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

What  it  was  that  proved  such  a 
turning-point  in  the  poet's  life  and 
thought  In  Memoriam  revealed  to  the 
world  eight  years  after ;  not,  however, 
until  the  source  as  well  as  the  fact  of 
this  deepened  change  had  been  dis- 
covered by  sympathetic  observers.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  the  following 


22  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

words  of  an  American  critic  were  writ- 
ten in  1844,  six  years  before  In  Me- 
moriam  appeared.  They  occur  in  a 
review  of  the  two-volume  edition  of 
Tennyson's  poems,  the  first  volume  of 
which  ends  with  the  poem  "  To  J.  S.," 
being  an  address  to  James  Sped- 
ding  on  the  death  of  his  brother, 
who  was  one  of  Tennyson's  college 
Democratic  mates.  "  This  poem,"  says  the  re- 

Revtew,         •    .  .  '        . 

January,      viewer,  "  closes,  with  infinite  propriety, 
1844,  p.  76.  . 

this  series  of  beautiful  writings.     It  is 

like  the  prelude  to  the  solemn  harmo- 
nies that  follow,  the  sublimest  parts  of 
which  have  been  stricken  from  the 
soul  of  the  poet  by  the  hand  of  the 
Angel  of  Death,  who,  in  bearing  from 
this  earth  one  of  the  purest  spirits  and 
brightest  intelligences  that  ever  vis- 
ited it,  deprived  Tennyson  of  a  friend 
who  was  to  have  become  his  brother. 
...  To  the  solemn  and  tender  spirit- 
union  which  still  subsists  between  Ten- 
nyson and  this  his  brother  we  attribute 
the  inspiration  whence  emanates  the 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM.  2$ 

sublime  poetry  and  philosophy  of 
'  Locksley  Hall '  and  '  The  Two 
Voices.' " 

We  have  thus  traced  the  poet's 
work  half-way  through  the  seventeen 
years  during  which  In  Memoriam  was 
growing.  His  own  characterization  of 
the  songs  thus  far  made,  as  "  echoes 
out  of  weaker  times,"  is  perhaps  no 
earnestly  meant  indication  of  what  is 
their  real  art ;  for  as  late  as  1849, 
when  the  artistic  structure  of  the 
whole  series,  carefully  ordered  and 
unified  as  we  now  see  it  to  be,  was 
essentially  complete,  he  would  call 
them  only  "  wild  and  wandering  cries," 
and  leave  it  to  his  readers  to  find  what 
more  they  are.  And  we  need  only  to 
trace  these  songs  carefully,  in  the  spirit 
of  them,  to  find  that  they  are  far  more. 
If  indeed  it  may  be  permitted  to  take 
up  the  poet  at  a  word,  we  may  say 
that  while  to  him  they  seem 

"  As  half  but  idle  brawling  rhymes, 
The  sport  of  random  sun  and  shade,  " 


24  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

this  expresses  only  half  of  their  char- 
acter, and  the  other  half  must  be  con- 
sidered. The  other  half  we  are  to 
seek  in  the  direction  of  the  poem's 
perfected  art.  If  In  Memoriam  pre- 
serves, as  actually  appears  in  its 
pages,  in  some  sense  the  spiritual  rec- 
ord of  those  years,  we  cannot  let  it 
stop  with  the  mere  aimless  moods  of 
grief ;  we  look  for  it  to  have  advanced 
beyond  them,  even  in  these  first  nine 
years,  to  some  such  firm  standing- 
ground  as  the  other  poetry  of  this 
period  evinces,  and  as  the  poet  recog- 
nizes in  himself.  Further,  there  are 
i&42-i8y>.  eight  years  more  of  patient  work  to 
be  devoted  to  the  poem,  before  it  is 
given  to  the  world.  In  this  second 
period  we  look  for  some  fruit  of  the 
calmer,  greater  mind  which  the  stern 
discipline  of  the  past  has  developed. 
And  whatever  the  additions  of  this 
period  are,  we  look  at  all  events  for 
such  rounding,  such  arranging,  such 
linking  of  parts  together,  as  shall  fit 


TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  2$ 

the  poem  to  challenge  the  world's  at- 
tention as  a  unified  work  of  art.  A 
true  work  of  art,  according  to  the 
poet's  own  ideal,  should  not  fail  in  the 
primary  characteristic  of  "  toil  cooper- 
ant  to  an  end."  We  naturally  expect, 
therefore,  to  find  in  the  completed  poem 
a  beginning,  a  correlation  of  parts, 
a  progress,  a  culmination.  Nor  will 
our  expectation  be  disappointed.  The 
meditation  of  those  seventeen  years 
has  ripened  not  only  into  a  spiritual 
record,  which  has  vitally  united  itself 
with  the  deepest  thought  of  the  age, 
but  also  into  a  harmonious,  severely 
ordered  work  of  art, 

"  Flowing  free 

From  point  to  point,  with  power  and  grace 
And  music  in  the  bounds  of  law." 

I  have  intimated  in  what  way  alone  The  kind  of 

t_    c  •      ,      i  r      i  i      study  In  Me- 

the  poem  before  us  is  to  be  profitably  moriam 
studied,  —  in  the  same  way  by  which         ^ 
the  devoutest  minds  of  the  age  have 
found  it  fruitful  of  thought  and  com- 
fort, namely,  through  the  spirit  of  it. 


26  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

In  Memoriam  does  not  yield  its  whole 
secret  at  once.  Nor  does  it  reveal 
itself  willingly  to  an  uncongenial  or 
impatient  reader.  Catch-words  and 
mechanical  devices  count  for  little  in 
its  structure.  We  need  to  lay,  as  it 
were,  our  hearts  by  the  side  of  the 
poet's  heart,  surrendering  ourselves 
obediently  to  his  thought  and  spirit, 
until  there  is  evolved  to  our  view  the 
devout  purpose  that  has  presided 
throughout  the  whole  series  of  these 
songs  ;  and  then  we  shall  find  that  the 
spirit  has  indeed  shaped  itself  a  body, 
a  fair,  symmetrical,  artistic  structure, 
worthy  in  every  part  to  present,  well- 
rounded,  the  thought  which  it  ei> 
shrines. 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMO- 
RIAM. 


"  If  love  lives  through  all  life ;  and  survives  through 
all  sorrow ;  and  remains  steadfast  with  us  through  all 
changes ;  and  in  all  darkness  of  spirit  burns  brightly  ; 
and,  if  we  die,  deplores  us  forever,  and  loves  still  equally ; 
and  exists  with  the  very  last  gasp  and  throb  of  the 
faithful  bosom  —  whence  it  passes  with  the  pure  soul, 
beyond  death ;  surely  it  shall  be  immortal !  Though  we 
who  remain  are  separated  from  it,  is  it  not  ours  in 
Heaven  ?  If  we  love  still  those  we  lose,  can  we  alto- 
gether lose  those  we  love  ?  "  —  THACKERAY,  The  New 
Cftnes. 


THE    PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMO- 
RIAM. 

IN  such  a  study  as  is  here  proposed  startinr- 

3  point  oftht 

it  is  simple  fairness  to  take  as  the  study. 
starting-point  what  the  poem  itself 
professes  to  be.  And  its  professions 
are  moderate  enough ;  it  makes  no 
parade  of  claims.  Ostensibly  and 
really  it  is  a  series  of  meditations  on 
love  and  death  and  immortality ;  medi- 
tations apparently  compelled  and  con- 
trolled by  the  poet's  personal  bereave- 
ment, with  the  long  experience  of  pain 
that  succeeds.  In  work  of  this  kind 
the  history  of  literature  is  not  poor. 
Much  of  the  finest  and  truest  poetry 
of  the  world  has  been  in  some  form 
elegiac.  In  Memoriam  takes  its  place 
in  the  class  with  such ;  and  from  the 


30  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAL 

idle  reader  it  asks  no  higher  tribute 
than  the  acknowledgment  that  it  per- 
petuates worthily  the  memory  of  Ar- 
thur Henry  Hallam.  If  its  significance 
is  more  than  this,  the  fact  must  be 
found  by  insight  and  study.  It  has 
indeed  a  meaning  lying  on  the  sur- 
face ;  if  the  reader  is  satisfied  with 
this,  well ;  if  he  seeks  and  finds  more, 
he  finds  it  not  by  the  poet's  assertion, 
but  in  the  way  of  spiritual  sympathy. 
The  poem's  deepest  meaning  is  an  ap- 
peal to  what  is  deepest  in  congenial 
hearts. 

It  will  give  us  a  broader  and  more 
satisfactory  idea  of  its  purpose  if  we 
compare  In  Memoriam  with  certain 
other  works,  confessedly  typical  of  the 
class  to  which  it  belongs,  and  see 
wherein  it  is  like  them  and  wherein  it 
differs.  To  this  comparison  may  prof- 
itably succeed  a  consideration  of  its 
place  in  the  life  and  thought  of  its 
time  and  among  the  author's  contem- 
porary works.  And  finally  we  will 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  3 1 

seek  in  the  poem  itself  for  indications 
of  its  purpose  and  fundamental  idea. 

I. 

The  title  and  occasion  of  In  Memo-  y«  Memori- 
riam  claim  for  it  the  character  of  an  "£&!  a* 
elegiac  tribute  to  the  dead  :  — 

IN    MEMORIAM 
A.  H.  H. 

OBIIT    MDCCCXXXIII. 

A  few  words  will  suffice  to  fill  out 
this  outline.  Arthur  Henry  Hallam, 
for  five  years  the  college  mate  and 
intimate  friend  of  Alfred  Tennyson, 
died  at  Vienna,  September  15,  1833  ; 
and  with  his  sudden  death  ceased 
a  companionship  whose  genial  influ- 
ence had  been  of  untold  sweetness 
and  value  in  the  early  years  of  the 
poet's  career.  Such  is  the  simple 
external  fact ;  for  the  spiritual  signif- 
icance of  that  companionship,  both 
present  and  as  a  memory,  to  the  poet, 


32  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

reference  is  made  to  the  whole  course 
of  the  poem. 

^ctdtL and  "^s  an  ^SV'  ^n  Memoriam  provokes 
comparison  with  two  other  celebrated 
elegies,  Milton's  "Lycidas"  and 'Shel- 
ley's "Adonais." 

Milton's  "  Lycidas  "  is  a  pastoral,  in 
which  a  dead  shepherd  is  represented 
as  lamented  by  his  surviving  compan- 
ion ;  and  under  this  conventional  im- 
agery the  real  facts  of  the  death  of 
Milton's  fellow-student,  Edward  King, 
are  portrayed,  as  far  as  the  disguise 
of  its  classical  model  permits  recog- 
nizable description.  Shelley's  "  Ado- 
nais," written  on  occasion  of  the  death 
of  John  Keats,  is  a  wonderful  poetic 
picture  of  a  poet's  death,  into  which 
picture  are  introduced  the  airy  forms 
and  scenery  of  that  supersensual  world 
in  which,  Shelley's  genius  habitually 
dwelt.  In  both  of  these  poems  the 
purely  artistic  element  is  designedly 
predominant.  Both  of  the  poems  in- 
troduce, as  is  natural  to  their  subject, 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  33 

their  authors'  ideas  of  death,  if  not 
as  formulated,  at  least  as  taken  for 
granted  ;  and  it  is  chiefly  by  compar- 
ing the  treatment  of  this  element,  as 
we  shall  see,  that  we  become  aware 
how  essentially  In  Memoriam  tran- 
scends the  character  of  a  mere  elegy. 

Such    elements    of    parallelism    as  Points  of 

.  similarity  to 

exist  between  these  poems  and  In  in 
Memoriam  are  furnished  mainly  by  *' 
the  very  similar  occasions  of  all  three 
productions.  In  each  case  the  subject 
of  the  elegy  is  a  young  man,  with  a 
life  full  of  generous  promise,  whose 
untimely  death  cuts  him  off  from  a 
career  which  his  powers  would  have 
made  famous.  Within  the  suggestive- 
ness  of  these  parallel  facts  lie  all  or 
nearly  all  the  points  that  permit  com- 
parison. In  each  case  the  subject 
leads  us  quite  naturally  to  expect  — 
conditioned,  of  course,  by  the  poet's 
individuality  —  some  poet's  view  of 
blighted  fame,  of  the  gloom  with 
which  bereavement  invests  the  world, 
3 


34  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

of  the  sweetness  of  past  companion- 
ship, of  the  influence  that  in  loving 
hearts  shall  survive  death.  Such 
points  as  these  are,  as  matter  of  fact, 
the  characteristics  in  which  alone  the 
poems  may  be  said  to  approach  one 
another ;  and  these  are  the  typical 
characteristics  of  the  elegy.  The  se- 
lection of  citations  to  illustrate  so  ob- 
vious a  parallelism,  which  must  often 
be  less  in  verbal  expression  than  in  the 
general  bearing  of  a  passage,  is  some- 
what unsatisfactory:  yet  compare,  as 
to  fame,  Lycidas  70-84  with  In  Me- 
moriam  Ixxiii.,  Ixxv.  4,  5  ;  as  to  the 
hallowed  companionship,  Lycidas  23- 
36  with  In  Memoriam  xxiii.  4-6 ;  as 
to  the  darkened  world,  Lycidas  37-44 
and  Adonais  liii.  with  In  Memoriam 
viii.  1-3,  xxxviii.  1,2;  compare,  fur- 
ther, Adonais  xviii.,  xxi.  with  In  Me- 
moriam cxv.  i,  5,  Ixxviii.  4,  5,  vi.  2 ; 
as  to  the  surviving  influence,  Lycidas 
182-185  and  Adonais  Iv.  with  In  Me- 
moriam cxxx.  4,  Ixxx.  4. 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  35 

The  difference  that  first  strikes  the  Points  of 

,     T      difference. 

reader  between  these  poems  and  In 
Memoriam  is  the  fact  that,  while  Lyci- 
das  and  Adonais  act  a  part,  In  Memo- 
riam speaks  in  its  own  character  and 
calls  things  by  real  instead  of  poetical 
names.  The  artistic  model  chosen  for 
both  of  these  others  erects  a  conven- 
tional standard,  to  which  their  thought 
must  conform  itself ;  to  find  their  au- 
thors' personality  we  must  penetrate  a 
disguise,  and  the  underlying  idea  must 
be  translated  (except  where  other  than 
artistic  issues  cause  the  poem  to  speak 
out  of  character,  as  in  Lycidas  113- 
131)  from  imagery  into  literal  form. 
In  Memoriam,  on  the  other  hand,  dis- 
cusses real  issues,  seeks  a  solution  to 
universally  acknowledged  problems  ; 
and  both  seeker  and  object  appear  in 
the  light  of  unfigurative  expression. 

This  fact  suggests,  indeed,  the  es- 
sential difference.  Before  all  three  po- 
ems, as  elegies,  stands,  of  course,  the 
predominating  fact  of  death.  But,  if 


36  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

we  may  so  express  it,  while  the  other 
poems  use  the  thought  of  death  as 
their  groundwork,  In  Memoriam  takes 
it  as  a  starting-point.  It  is  as  an  in- 
quiry after  the  real  nature  of  death, 
and  especially  of  the  mystery  beyond 
death  and  beyond  the  world  of  sense, 
as  a  progress  to  results  which  it  veri- 
fies step  by  step,  that  In  Memoriam 
demonstrates  its  character  as  more 
than  a  mere  elegy. 

This  characteristic  difference  may 
be  well  illustrated  by  a  comparison  of 
those  passages  in  each  where  death 
as  extinction  of  being  is  denied.  Both 
Milton  and  Shelley  view  the  state  af- 
ter death  with  certitude  of  mind,  but 
in  very  different  ways.  In  Lycidas,  in 
the  passage  beginning, 

Lycidas,  "  Weep  no  more,  woeful  shepherds,  weep  no  more, 

165-177.  por  LyCj(3aS)  your  sorrow,  is  not  dead," 

there  is  evident  the  Puritan's  settled 
assurance,  in  such  full  consciousness 
of  scriptural  teaching  that  even  the 
poet's  chosen  classical  imagery  dis- 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  37 

appears  from  the  description.  In  Ad- 
onais,  in  the  passage  beginning, 

"  Peace,  peace !  he  is  not  dead,  he  doth  not  sleep ;         Adonais} 
He  hath  awakened  from  the  dream  of  life," 

we  have  also  the  utterance  of  a  well- 
settled  idea,  if  that  may  be  called  an 
idea  which  consists  rather  in  the  pas- 
sionate negation  of  strict  and  definite 
ideas  concerning  the  beyond,  further 
than  this,  that  the  real  clearness  is 
yonder,  the  mystery  here.  Quite  dis- 
tinct from  these,  it  is  the  main  charac- 
teristic of  In  Memoriam  that  nothing 
is  certain  at  first,  and  all  is  cleared  up 
at  last.  The  sentiment  — 

"  They  do  not  die,  In  Memori- 

Nor  lose  their  mortal  sympathy,  am>  Jaat*  6< 

Nor  change  to  us,  although  they  change  "  — 

is  not  a  conventionalism,  nor  is  it 
lightly  uttered  as  an  accepted  doc- 
trine ;  it  is  the  result  of  an  earnest 
inquiry  into  life  and  experience,  —  the 
first  in  a  series  of  results  which  add 
themselves  until  the  whole  world,  tem- 
poral and  eternal,  is  included  in  the 
answer. 


38  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

The  same  difference  is  made  strik- 
ingly evident,  also,  by  a  comparison  of 
what,  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  I  may 
call  the  pantheistic  passages  in  the 
three  poems.  In  Lycidas  any  such 
element  is  rather  poetic  than  panthe- 
istic, being  merely  such  a  fancy  as 
does  not  compromise  the  poet's  per- 
sonal views,  and  as  deference  to  his 
classic  model  requires  and  permits :  — 

8  CU%is'  "  Now,  Lycidas,  the  shepherds  weep  no  more  ; 

Henceforth  thou  art  the  Genius  of  the  shore, 
In  thy  large  recompense,  and  shall  be  good 
To  all  that  wander  in  that  perilous  flood." 

In  Adonais  this  element  appears  pro- 
nounced and  well  defined,  as  entirely 
consistent  with  Shelley's  unconven- 
tional creed,  which  his  whole  poetical 
career  has  asserted  :  — 

Adonais,  "  He  is  made  one  with  Nature :  there  is  heard 

*"*•  *9'  His  voice  in  all  her  music,  from  the  moan 

Of  thunder,  to  the  song  of  night's  sweet  bird ; 
He  is  a  presence  to  be  felt  and  known 
In  darkness  and  in  light,  from  herb  and  stone, 
Spreading  itself  where'er  that  Power  may  move 
Which  has  withdrawn  his  being  to  its  own  ; 
Which  wields  the  world  with  never  wearied  love, 
Sustains  it  from  beneath,  and  kindles  it  above. " 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  39 

When,  however,  Tennyson  comes  to 
say,— 

"  Thy  voice  is  on  the  rolling  air ;  In  Memori- 

I  hear  thee  where  the  waters  run ;  am'  cxxx> 

Thou  standest  in  the  rising  sun, 
And  in  the  setting  thou  art  fair,"  — 

we  find  this  asserted  as  an  acquired 
conviction,  suggested  by  the  preced- 
ing course  of  thought ;  and  once  sug- 
gested the  idea  is  pursued,  in  the  an- 
swer to  the  question,  "  What  art  thou, 
then  ? "  until  an  answer  is  found  in 
which  the  poet's  rational  faith  may 
rest. 

We  may  draw,  then,  the  following  Summary. 
result  of  our  comparison  with  Lycidas 
and  Adonais.  In  Memoriam  fulfills, 
as  they  do,  the  characteristics  of  an 
elegy,  but  this  only  as  a  subordinate 
feature.  If  the  poem  were  merely  a 
formal  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the 
dead,  and  nothing  more,  the  dead 
friend  would  hardly  have  waited  sev- 
enteen years  for  his  monument.  But 
even  those  passages  which  show  the 
most  striking  parallelism  in  expres- 


40  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

sion  show  also  in  their  connection  most 
strikingly  the  fact  that  the  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  In  Memoriam  lies  be- 
yond the  domain  of  the  elegy,  in  its 
character  of  inquiry,  of  progress  to 
the  solution  of  doubts ;  in  its  reverent 
interrogation  of  the  mystery  beyond 
death,  and  its  significance  for  dead 
and  living.  The  thought  of  this  char- 
acter contributes  an  important  element 
to  our  idea  of  its  purpose. 

II. 

inMemori-      The    death  which    In    Memoriam 

am  as  a  me-  ,.,          ..          f 

moriaiof  commemorates,  unlike  the  foregoing 
examples,  was  one  which  suddenly 
tore  asunder  a  fair  companionship, 
and  invaded  a  love  such  as  is  rare 
between  men.  The  power  of  that 
love  death  does  not  impair,  but  re- 
veals :  it  lives  on  and  works,  a  hal- 
lowed influence,  in  the  survivor.  To 
commemorate  that  companionship  and 
to  interpret  the  involvements  of  that 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  41 

undiminished  love  is  an  object  of  In 
Memoriam  which  constitutes  a  much 
more  essential  element  of  its  literary 
character  than  its  elegiac  quality. 

As  a  memorial    of    friendship,    In  sfake- 
Memoriam   has  a    noted    parallel   in  sso*nets. 
English    literature,  which  we    cannot 
well  leave  uncompared,  namely,  Shake- 
speare's Sonnets. 

The  Sonnets  of  Shakespeare  are 
among  the  most  baffling  phenomena 
of  the  dramatist's  career.  This  is  not 
the  place  to  discuss  the  ever -open 
question  who  is  their  hero,  or  how 
far  they  are  autobiographical.  Their 
ground  of  comparison  with  In  Memo- 
riam lies  in  the  fact  that  they  portray 
a  very  remarkable  love  of  their  author 
for  some  male  friend,  —  a  love  which 
seems  to  have  taken  deep  hold  of 
the  poet's  life,  and  the  expression  of 
which,  in  ever-varied  forms  of  thought 
and  imagery,  calls  forth  all  the  re- 
sources of  his  art. 

That  Tennyson  himself,  during  the 


42  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

experience  which  In  Memoriam  re- 
cords, felt  the  likeness  of  his  love  for 
Arthur  Hallam  to  Shakespeare's  love 
for  his  unknown  friend,  would  seem 
to  be  indicated  by  the  remarkable 
allusion  to  Shakespeare,  In  Memo- 
riam Ixi.  3  :  — 

"  I  loved  thee,  Spirit,  and  love,  nor  can 
The  soul  of  Shakespeare  love  thee  more." 

Here  an  explicit  comparison  is  made, 
in  which  the  name  of  Shakespeare 
could  have  no  significance  except  as 
we  see  in  him  just  the  Shakespeare  of 
the  Sonnets.  A  detailed  comparison 
of  In  Memoriam  with  the  Sonnets  indi- 
cates also,  by  many  striking  turns  of 
expression,  and  still  more  by  the  gen- 
eral similarity  of  spirit,  that  Tennyson 
has  given  thorough  and  appreciative 
study  to  these  works  of  the  dramatist. 
For  a  showing  of  these  similarities, 
illustrated  by  many  citations,  refer- 
ence is  made  to  "  Tennysoniana " 
(London,  Pickering),  pages  53  -  72. 
See,  also,  Furnivall's  Introduction  to 
the  Leopold  Shakespeare,  page  Ixiv. 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  43 

Despite  the  fact,  however,  that  Ten-  Points  of 
nyson  works  in  the  consciousness  that  to  in  Me- 

.,.,„,,.  ,        ,       tnoriam. 

his  position  is  like  Shakespeare  s,  the 
parallelism  between  In  Memoriam 
and  the  Sonnets  is  for  the  most  part 
superficial.  In  both  the  love  of  one 
man  for  another  is  celebrated  in  song. 
In  both  the  singers  speak  in  their  real 
character.  In  both  there  is  a  strong 
introspective  element,  a  disposition  to 
define  the  depths  and  bounds  of  love 
by  poetic  analysis  and  imagery.  With 
such  similar  circumstances  in  mind,  we 
look  in  both  to  see  much  said  about 
song  and  its  sacred  office,  much  about 
the  value  of  the  companionship,  much 
about  the  depth  and  lastingness  of  the 
love  celebrated.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  in  the  expression  of  such  senti- 
ments as  these  that  the  most  striking 
similarities  are  to  be  found.  Com- 
pare, for  instance,  as  to  the  song  and 
its  office,  Sonnets  xvi.,  xvii.,  xxix., 
xxxii.,  Ixxxiii.,  xci.  with  In  Memoriam 
Ixxv.,  Ixxvii. ;  as  to  the  love,  Sonnets 


44  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

xxv.,  cii.,  cxvi.  with  In  Memoriam  lix., 
Ixxxv.  16,  Epilogue  4-6.  The  investi- 
ture of  all  nature  with  cheerlessness, 
which  in  In  Memoriam  is  caused  by 
bereavement,  appears  in  the  Sonnets 
as  the  consequence  of  absence.  Com- 
pare In  Memoriam  viii.,  xxxviii.  with 
Sonnet  xcvii.  Thus  far  the  parallelism 
is  superficial.  Attention  is  called,  how- 
ever, to  one  remarkable  point  in  which 
the  parallelism  is  deeper,  namely,  to 
the  passages  in  each  which  portray 
the  self-abnegation  of  the  poet's  love. 
Compare  Sonnets  xlix.,  Ixxi.,  Ixxxix. 
with  In  Memoriam  Ixi.,  Ixii.  This 
sentiment  imparts  to  Shakespeare's 
love  a  touch  of  that  ideal  character 
which  is  the  predominant  feature  of 
Tennyson's. 
Points  of  The  points  of  divergence  are  funda- 

difference,  .    . 

mental ;  that  is  to  say,  the  essential 
purpose  of  In  Memoriam  depends  on 
its  maintaining  a  sentiment  other  than 
that  of  Shakespeare's  Sonnets.  As  a 
minor  point,  the  fact  that  fancy  so 


THE    PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  45 

rules  in  the  Sonnets  as  to  obscure  the 
personality  of  both  lover  and  loved  is 
a  feature  that  demands  a  radically  dif- 
ferent character;  as  is  evident  when 
we  consider  that  In  Memoriam  is  striv- 
ing fundamentally  after  the  solution  of 
a  real  problem  which  allows  no  dis- 
guises. The  principal  divergence  lies, 
however,  in  the  different,  we  may  al- 
most say  contrasted,  characters  of  the 
love  represented.  Not  that  the  one 
love  is  more  genuine  or  self-forgetful 
than  the  other;  that  were  precarious 
to  assert ;  but  they  subsist  in  unlike  re- 
gions and  move  to  ends  widely  apart. 
In  the  Sonnets  the  love  is  earthly,  and 
touched  with  earth's  sin  and  shame  ; 
in  In  Memoriam  it  is  idealized,  fixed 
beyond  estrangement,  hallowed  by 
death.  In  the  Sonnets  the  love  recog- 
nizes only  this  world,  with  its  adulter- 
ous ways  ;  in  In  Memoriam  the  facts 
of  the  case  transfer  love  to  that  un- 
seen world,  where  it  rises  in  purity  and 
blessedness  until  it  loses  itself  in  the 


46  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

love  of  God.  Further,  in  the  Sonnets 
love  languishes  in  absence,  and  sets 
no  higher  goal  to  its  longing  than 
union  again ;  in  In  Memoriam,  where 
absence  is  permanent  bereavement, 
the  continuance  of  love  here  and  the 
belief  that  it  continues  in  him  who  is 
removed  beyond  death  constitute  the 
foundation  of  its  most  important  argu- 
ment. Finally,  the  Sonnets  begin  and 
end  with  the  love  of  one  for  one ;  In 
Memoriam,  which  begins  with  the  in- 
dividual, extends  by  degrees  the  sphere 
of  its  love  to  all  the  world.1 
Summary.  We  are  ready  now  for  the  result  of 
our  comparison.  Like  Shakespeare's 
Sonnets,  In  Memoriam  celebrates  a 
friendship  that  was  "  wonderful,  pass- 
ing the  love  of  women."  But  this 

1  Of  course  the  above  comparison  can  recognize  only 
the  first  group  of  the  Sonnets  (Sonnets  i.-cxxvi.)  as  in 
any  way  parallel  with  In  Memoriam.  The  utter  con- 
trast of  sentiment  in  the  second  group,  which  portrays 
the  love  of  Shakespeare  for  some  unworthy  mistress, 
may  be  sufficiently  indicated  by  a  comparison  of  Sonnet 
cl.  with  In  Memoriam  cix.-cxii. 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  47 

friendship,  as  it  existed  in  the  present 
world,  is  in  In  Memoriam  only  the 
starting-point.  It  is  beyond  this,  in 
the  portrayal  of  a  love  that  exists  un- 
impaired by  bereavement,  of  a  love 
that  Death  has  so  idealized  that  its 
further  steps  must  be  traced  in  a  holy 
region  accessible  only  to  faith,  that 
the  distinctive  character  of  In  Memo- 
riam is  to  be  found.  The  fact  that  it 
exists  for  the  purpose  not  merely  of 
memorializing  love,  but  of  interpret- 
ing its  religious  depths,  makes  for  In 
Memoriam  a  class  which  it  occupies 
alone. 


III. 

To  the  characteristics  of  In  Memo-  /«  Memo- 
riam  gathered  from  the  foregoing  com-  tkeUading 

.  thoughts  of 

pansons  may  be  added  another,  drawn  thefoet's 
from  a  glance  at  the  life  and  thought  Crar'ymt 
of  the  time,  and  the  reflection  of  these  ™ 
in  the  poet's  contemporary  works. 

The  growth  of  In  Memoriam  occu- 
pies a  period  which  for  many  reasons 


48  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

may  be  regarded  as  the  most  remark- 
able of  the  century.  Between  the 
limits  of  those  seventeen  years  were 
witnessed  the  most  marvelous  of  the 
practical  applications  of  steam  and  elec- 
tricity which  have  revolutionized  mod- 
ern  crvilization-  Science  was  awake 
on  every  hand,  gathering  materials  for 
the  bold  speculations  on  man  and  na- 
ture which  within  a  few  years  have 
antiquated  all  that  science  had  done 
before.  Philosophical  and  theological 
speculation  had  received  a  new  im- 
pulse from  Germany ;  and  if  that  eager 
impulse  pushed  itself  into  evils,  it  also 
made  more  apparent  to  earnest  minds 
the  need  of  a  deeper  life  and  more 
reasonable  thinking  in  religious  things. 
Against  the  rationalizing  tendencies 
of  this  new  thought  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  too  shallow  Evangelicalism  on 
the  other,  some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
church  were  stirred  up  to  recognize 
the  need  of  thorough  reform ;  and 
the  publication,  from  1834  to  1841,  of 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  49 

"  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  was  the  out- 
ward indication  of  the  Oxford  move- 
ment, characterized  as  "one  of  the 
most  momentous  that  had  stirred  the 
Church  of  England  since  the  Refor- 
mation." In  politics  it  was  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Reform  Bill  (1832),  and  of 
popular  agitations  and  improvements. 
The  following  words,  written  to  give 
the  aspect  of  things  about  1841,  will 
indicate  the  character  of  the  time  a 
little  more  in  detail :  "  It  must  be  re-  Frothing. 

...  ham, Life 

membered  that  projects  of  radical  so-  of  George 

.        ,          .          m  Ripley,  p. 

cial  reform  were  in  the  air.  To  quote  109. 
the  language  of  John  Morley :  '  A 
great  wave  of  humanity,  of  benevo- 
lence, of  desire  for  improvement,  — 
a  great  wave  of  social  sentiment,  in 
short,  —  poured  itself  among  all  who 
had  the  faculty  of  large  and  disinter- 
ested thinking.'  Dr.  Pusey  and  Dr. 
Newman,  representatives  of  the  vital 
movement  in  the  direction  of  spirit- 
ual supernaturalism,  were  thinking  and 
writing.  Thomas  Arnold  and  F.  D. 
4 


5O  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

Maurice  were  trying  to  broaden  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  direction  of 
human  progress,  so  that  it  might  em- 
brace heaven  and  earth,  faith  and  phil- 
osophy, creed  and  criticism.  Carlyle 
was  thundering  against  shams  in  relig- 
ion and  politics.  Dickens  was  show- 
ing up  the  abuses,  cruelties,  and  iniq- 
uities of  the  established  order.  Kings- 
ley  was  stirring  the  caldron  of  social 
discontent.  -  The  teaching  of  George 
Combe  was  heralded  as  an  inspiration. 
Cobden  was  inaugurating  a  new  era  in 
industrial  undertakings.  The  corn-law 
agitation  was  started.  John  Bright 
and  Daniel  O'Connell  were .  busy  at 
their  work  of  destroying  monopolies. 
In  France  as  well  as  in  England,  in 
fact  all  over  Europe,  the  seeds  were 
ripening  for  the  great  revolt  of  1848." 
In  such  a  time  as  this  the  poet's 
soul,  stirred  and  solemnized  by  be- 
reavement, was  seeking  to  interpret  un- 
seen things  by  the  world  of  the  seen. 
In  such  work  he  must  indeed  interro* 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORTAM.  5  I 

gate  strictly  his  nobler  consciousness ; 
but  he  could  not  remain  wholly  buried 
in  himself.  Whether  he  entered  per- 
sonally into  any  conflict  of  thought,  or 
remained  only  a  spectator,  a  young 
poet  like  Tennyson,  with  a  spirit  vibrat- 
ing like  an  ^Eolian  harp  to  every  breath 
of  the  time,  could  not  but  be  keenly 
alive  to  the  greatness  and  promise  of 
the  life  about  him.  We  see  many  in- 
dications of  this  fact  in  In  Memoriam. 
Between  the  lines  everywhere  is  ap- 
parent the  almost  oppressing  con- 
sciousness of 

"  So  many  worlds,  so  much  to  do, 
So  little  done,  such  things  to  be ; "  Ixxiii.  i. 

and  so,  while  on  his  faith  is  laid  the 
burden  of  one  great  problem,  he  can- 
not in  solving  it  be  forgetful  of 

"  the  lesser  faith 
That  sees  the  course  of  human  things ;  "  cxxviii.  i. 

nor  will  he  consent  to  cherish  such 
frozen  introspective  grief  as  leads  no 
whither,  in  a  time 

"  When  Science  reaches  forth  her  arms 
To  feel  from  world  to  world,  and  charms 
Her  secret  from  the  latest  moon."  iri.  5. 


52  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

Such  a  consciousness  of  his  time  and 
its  great  demands  is  betrayed  also  by 
a  certain  deprecatory  tone  which  oc- 
curs again  and  again,  as  if  he  were  too 
well  aware  that  his  song  of  woe  is  out 
of  tune  with  his  age,  as  it  comes  also 
to  be  half  out  of  tune  with  his  own 
calmer  self.  As  instances  of  this,  see 
xxi.,  cxxv.,  Epilogue  5,  6,  and  the 
chorus-poems  in  general ;  concerning 
which  latter  more  hereafter.  That  he 
sees  also  in  the  eager  spirit  of  the 
time  a  danger  that  it  may  rush  beyond 
its  proper  bounds  is  apparent  in  his 
references  to  knowledge  and  wisdom, 
in  which  hope  is  conjoined  with  warn- 
ing. See  cxiv.,  cxx.,  Prologue  7.  For 
a  like  feeling  of  caution  regarding 
moral  character,  see  liii.  These  ref- 
erences, which  might  indeed  be  multi- 
plied, will  suffice  to  show  that  In  Me- 
moriam  has  not  failed  to  feel  the  in' 
fluence  of  its  time,  and  to  move  in 
the  consciousness  of  it. 

An  examination  of  the  poet's  works 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  53 

previous  to  1850,  and  of  their  leading  f^j^ui~ 
ideas,  will  show  with  equal  clearness  wj}ileln: 

Memoriam 

how  the  times  reflect  themselves  in  his  ™<**  grow- 
ing. 

thought.  By  1848  the  poems  pub- 
lished in  1842  were  in  their  fifth  edi- 
tion; and  "The  Princess,"  published 
in  1847,  was  m  ^s  second  edition.  Be- 
longing to  the  period  when  In  Memo- 
riam was  also  in  process  of  growth, 
these  poems  strike  here  and  there  many 
a  chord  which  is  more  fully  sounded  in 
the  latter.  Thoughts  about  the  deeper 
significance  of  love,  about  the  mystery 
of  the  eternity  after  us  and  before  us, 
about  the  problems  and  stirrings  of 
the  age,  show  the  unity  of  the  under- 
lying thought  that  was  creating  In 
Memoriam  and  these  productions'  at 
the  same  time.  Every  page  gives  ev- 
idence that  the  poet  was  passing 
through  a  time  of  crowding  thoughts. 
The  world's  problems  were  pressing 
upon  him  for  solution  ;  in  the  midst  of 
apparent  contradictions  he  was  con- 
stantly seeking  for  some  reconciling 


54  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

idea,  some  evidence  of  beneficent  de- 
sign shaping  truth  out  of  turmoil  and 
error. 

"  Let  there  be  thistles,  there  are  grapes ; 

If  old  things,  there  are  new ; 
Ten  thousand  broken  lights  and  shapes, 
Yet  glimpses  of  the  true." 

It  is  especially  to  be  noticed  that  in 
all  his  utterances  the  attitude  of  his 
mind  is  toward  the  future;  with  a 
spirit  keen  to  search,  yet  devout  to 
believe,  he  is  seeking  to  conform  all 
things  to  "  one  far-off  divine  event." 
The  thought  of  the  world's  future,  as 
the  present  prophesies  it,  is  the  cen- 
tral formative  idea  of  this  period.  A 
great  part  of  his  meditation  during  this 
time  may  be  defined  in  these  words  of 
"  Locksley  Hall :  "  — 

"  For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 
Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that 
would  be." 

This  formative  idea  is  worked  out  with 
greater  or  less  definiteness  in  such 
poems  as  "  Locksley  Hall,"  "  The 
Two  Voices,"  and  "  The  Golden 
Year ; "  but  also  in  many  minor  poems 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  55 

it  moulds  the  spirit  as  much  as  the 
expression.  In  the  poet's  most  casual 
thoughts, 

"  He  seems  to  hear  a  Heavenly  Friend, 
And  thro'  thick  veils  to  apprehend 
A  labor  working  to  an  end." 

Take,  for  instance,  "  The  Day-Dream," 
which  professes  to  be  "  earnest  wed 
with  sport,"  and  you  will  find  its  play- 
ful melodies  tuned  to  the  same  key :  — 

"  Well  —  were  it  not  a  pleasant  thing 

To  fall  asleep  with  all  one's  friends', 
To  pass  with  all  our  social  ties 

To  silence  from  the  paths  of  men  ; 
And  every  hundred  years  to  rise 

And  learn  the  world,  and  sleep  again ; 
To  sleep  thro'  terms  of  mighty  wars, 

And  wake  on  science  grown  to  more, 
On  secrets  of  the  brain,  the  stars, 

As  wild  as  aught  of  fairy-lore ; 
And  all  that  else  the  years  will  show, 

The  Poet-forms  of  stronger  hours, 
The  vast  Republics  that  may  grow, 

The  Federations  and  the  Powers ; 
Titanic  forces  taking  birth 

In  divers  seasons,  divers  climes ; 
For  we  are  Ancients  of  the  earth, 

And  in  the  morning  of  the  times." 

In  all  this  we  see  the  reflection  of 
the  age   in  a    mind    predisposed  to 


$6  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

faith.  No  doubt  there  were  dark 
aspects  of  things,  which  a  fair  inter- 
pretation could  not  leave  out  of  the 
account ;  but  the  poet  was  seeking 
always  to  evolve  the  broader  view 
which  in  spite  of  all  could  say,  — 

"  Yet  I  doubt  not  thro'  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose 

runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process 

of  the  suns." 

The  greater,  happier  future  of  the 
world,  —  that  idea  which  the  awaking 
time  irresistibly  suggests,  and  which 
In  Memoriam's  clinging  to  a  buried 
friendship,  as  if  all  good  were  dead, 
only  seems  querulously  to  repel,  — 
what  then  has  In  Memoriam  to  do 
with  this  thought  ?  More  than  we 
may  be  aware ;  more  indeed  than  all 
its  contemporary  works  put  together. 
It  is  the  idea  toward  which  the  whole 
poem  moves,  and  in  which  it  culmi- 
nates. To  quote  from  F.  W.  Robert- 
A??lysj?  son  :  "  To  a  coarser  class  of  minds  In 

of  In  Me- 

Preface'      Memoriam   appears   too   melancholy : 
one  long  monotone  of  grief.      It  is 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  57 

simply  one  of  the  most  victorious 
songs  that  ever  poet  chanted."  The 
student  must  not  judge  it  by  its  begin- 
ning alone.  While  it  has  professed 
only  to  sing  a  song  of  woe,  while  it 
has  seemed  to  be  frozen  in  a  past 
companionship  and  an  individual  sor- 
row, it  has  yet  all  along  been  pro- 
gressing, step  by  step,  from  the  past 
through  the  present  to  the  future  ;  from 
the  individual  grief,  through  the  calm 
of  new  friendship,  to  oneness  in  spirit 
with  all  the  race  ;  until  at  the  end  it 
draws  such  a  picture  of  what  is  to  be 
as  only  an  unshaken  faith  in  something 
higher  than  this  world  can  depict.  To 
the  spirit  of  its  time  the  poem  thus 
gives  the  ideal  interpretation,  and  all 
the  nobler  that  the  clear  height  to 
which  it  reaches  looks  back  down  into 
that  valley  of  bereavement  and  doubt 
where  man  must  meet  and  solve  his 
deepest  woes. 

I  may  now  in  a  word  recapitulate.  Recapitula- 
tion. 

Our  comparisons   thus  far  have    re- 


58  TENNYSON1  S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

vealed  three  main  characteristics  which 
form  the  groundwork  of  In  Memori- 
am :  first,  the  earnest  inquiry  into  the 
mystery  beyond  and  around  us,  which 
distinguishes  it  from  such  poems  as 
Lycidas  and  Adonais  ;  secondly,  the 
idealizing  of  the  love  that  has  been 
and  is,  both  here  and  beyond,  which 
distinguishes  it  from  such  works  as 
Shakespeare's  Sonnets ;  and  thirdly, 
the  clear  view  and  prophecy  of  the 
world's  greater  future,  which  it  gathers 
from  the  life  and  character  of  its  time. 
How  these  thoughts  are  woven  to- 
gether into  a  consistent  plan  and  prog- 
ress I  shall  soon  have  occasion  to 
show  ;  it  remains  first  briefly  to  in- 
dicate how  the  employment  of  these 
and  other  ideas  is  made  to  subserve  a 
broad  and  earnest  purpose. 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  59 


IV. 

It  would  be  of  intensest  interest  if  Environ- 
ment injtu- 
we  could  transport  ourselves  back  to  encmgthe 

poet  s  mind. 

the  poet's  college  days,  and  be  silent 
listeners  at  a  symposium  of  that  select 
conversazione  society  known  in  Cam- 
bridge as  the  "  Apostles,"  where  such 
young  men  as  Alfred  Tennyson,  Arthur 
Henry  Hallam,  Richard,  afterwards 
Archbishop,  Trench,  Frederick  Deni- 
son  Maurice,  and  Arthur  Helps  used 
to  meet  together  and  discuss  the  high- 
est ideals  of  life.  The  poet  very  likely 
refers  to  that  society  in  his  account  of 
a  visit  in  later  years  to  his  old  Cam- 
bridge haunts,  in  which  visit  he  went 
to  see  Hallam 's  room  :  — 

"  Where  once  we  held  debate,  a  band 
Of  youthful  friends,  on  mind  and  art, 
And  labor,  and  the  changing  mart, 
And  all  the  framework  of  the  land."  Ixxxvii.  6. 

Each  of  the  young  men  above  named 
went  forth  to  make  a  conspicuous 
mark  on  the  progressing  time,  and  to 


60  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

be  enrolled  among  the  purest  and 
brightest  spirits  of  the  century.  From 
their  later  careers  we  may  know  some- 
thing of  that  "  ideal  of  life  "  which 
they  formed  together  as  college  mates. 
And  one  characteristic  of  their  think- 
ing in  particular  is  very  clearly  dis- 
closed. In  the  stir  and  thought  of 
that  time,  when  Rationalism  and  Evan- 
gelicalism and  Ecclesiasticism  were 
pulling  different  ways,  and  to  a  spec- 
tator truth  might  well  have  seemed  in 
danger  of  being  lost  in  words,  such 
young  men  as  these  could  not  identify 
themselves  with  any  who  sought 

"  To  cleave  a  creed  in  sects  and  cries." 

For  the  sake  of  their  own  peace  they 
must  set  themselves  earnestly  to  find 
some  deeper  view  of  truth,  which  no 
system  could  disguise,  and  which  no 
theological  class  or  sect  could  make 
exclusively  its  own.  They  wrought  in 
t^ie  conviction  that  "  a  theology  which 
^oes  not  corresP°nd  to  the  deepest 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  human  be- 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  SJV  MEMORIAM.  6 1 

ings  cannot  be  a  true  theology ; "  and 
conversely,  that  whatever  truth  so  an- 
swers to  man's  deepest  nature,  be  it 
theological  or  otherwise,  ought  not  to 
be  buried  in  the  technicalities  of  a 
school.  This  earnest  search  gener- 
ated no  disposition  to  break  with  ex- 
isting systems :  it  was  simply  a  quest 
of  the  eternal  reality  underlying  them  ; 
a  falling  back  on  the  ground  truths 
of  human  and  divine  nature,  which  if 
true  are  of  tremendous  importance, 
and  seeking  to  vitalize  them  anew  in 
daily  life,  in  working  consciousness. 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  prod- 
ucts of  this  time  is  the  poem  "  The  The  TWO 
Two  Voices."  This  poem  is  dated 
1833.  Whether  Arthur  Hallam  ever 
saw  it  in  its  present  form  is  uncer- 
tain ;  but  undoubtedly  it  embodies 
many  thoughts  and  views  which  he 
had  shared  in  discussing.  Full  of  this 
wholesome  reality  -  seeking  spirit  just 
mentioned,  the  poem  evinces  a  fearless 
unconventionalism  of  thinking  far  be- 
yond the  clamor  of  dialectic  wars  :  — 


62  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

"  I  know  that  age  to  age  succeeds, 
Blowing  a  noise  of  tongues  and  deeds, 
A  dust  of  systems  and  of  creeds ;  " 

while  with  this  maturity  of  thought 
there  is  also  a  certain  youthful  inten- 
sity and  enthusiasm,  which,  grappling 
anew  the  ancient  problems  of  life, 
cherishes  the  desire 

"  To  search  thro'  all  I  felt  or  saw, 
The  springs  of  life,  the  depths  of  awe, 
And  reach  the  law  within  the  law." 

These  characteristics  of  "  The  Two 
Voices  "  make  the  consideration  of  it 
important  to  our  subject;  and  the 
more  so  because,  being  the  immediate 
predecessor  of  In  Memoriam,  it  strikes 
the  same  key  which  the  later  poem, 
agitated  by  bereavement,  carries 
through  a  deeper  and  higher  compass. 
It  is  as  representing  this  search  for 
reality  that  In  Memoriam  exhibits 
that  quality  which  I  denominate  its 
purpose.  From  the  first  the  poem 
sets  itself  avowedly  to  accomplish  an 
end,  the  attainment  of  which  shall 
satisfy  a  personal  need  of  the  author's 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  TN  MEMORIAM.  63 

mind ;  and  so  it  proceeds,  not  aim- 
lessly, nor  at  any  time  so  blinded  by 
grief  as  to  forget  its  desire,  until  it 
reaches  firm  ground,  beyond  the  reach 
of  adverse  doubts  and  fears.  There 
are  poems  which  so  act  a  part  that 
their  author's  personal  views  must 
ever  be  uncertain.  In  Memoriam  does 
not  act  a  part.  There  are  others 
where  the  poet's  mind  seems  so  acted 
upon  as  to  be  borne  away  from  its 
moorings  by  some  overmastering 
thought,  its  only  object  being  to  give 
its  mood  expression.  Such  a  charac- 
ter might  be  attributed  hastily  to  In 
Memoriam.  Still  others  there  are, 
wherein  the  poet's  mind,  apparently 
so  resistlessly  dominated  by  its  idea, 
may  yet  really  be  its  master,  steering 
it  to  a  foreseen  and  desired  point,  and 
so  in  the  goal  demonstrating  its  con- 
scious intention.  This  is  really  the 
case  in  In  Memoriam. 

What  then  is  this  object,  this  pur-  statement  of 

.          .       thepurpote. 

pose  ?      It  is,   while  giving  grief   its 


64  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

natural  expression,  to  cherish  with  it 
that  same  love  which  Death  has  in- 
vaded, but  not  impaired  ;  and  so,  fol- 
lowing, as  it  were,  love's  history  by 
faith,  into  the  unseen  world  on  the 
one  hand,  and  into  the  world  of  the 
nobler  future  on  the  other,  to  gather 
all  the  fruits  it  may  yield,  for  the  in- 
dividual and  for  the  race. 

This  is  its  immediate  purpose,  so 
far  as  determined  by  its  occasion  and 
subject  matter.  But  beyond  this  lies, 
I  think,  a  greater  object,  which  makes 
In  Memoriam  far  more  truly  an  ex- 
ponent of  its  time  than  its  subject 
would  naturally  indicate.  Now  that 
another  spirit  has  taken  possession  of 
poetic  literature,  we  can  look  back  at 
In  Memoriam  and  poetry  of  its  class 
as  representing  a  distinct  period, 
standing  out  sharply  bounded  as  mat- 
ter for  history ;  which  period  we  may 
name,  from  its  prevailing  tendency,  the 
theological  period  of  nineteenth-cen- 
tury literature.  Of  that  period,  rep- 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  65 

resented  by  such  names  as  Robert 
Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett  Brown- 
ing, Matthew  Arnold,  and  Arthur 
Hugh  Clough,  In  Memoriam  is  per- 
haps the  most  distinguishing  monu- 
ment. It  is  as  giving  form  and  vivid- 
ness to  the  deeper  theological  truths, 
which  in  its  time  every  thinking  man 
was  striving  to  connect  with  his  every- 
day experience,  that  In  Memoriam  be- 
trays its  greater  and  ultimate  purpose. 
The  occasion  fits  itself  to  the  task, 
as  being  a  universal  experience,  — 
bereavement.  But  bereavement,  with 
the  love  it  awakens,  with  the  imme- 
diate look  into  the  mystery  beyond 
death,  is  the  directest  way  to  the 
ground  truths  concerning  God  and 
immortality.  These  truths  should  be- 
come, if  possible,  matters  not  of  spec- 
ulation, but  of  working  consciousness  ; 
should  become  operative  in  every  life, 
as  they  are  in  the  poet's  life.  But  in  purpose 
first  the  poet  must  himself  rise  out  of for 
doubt  and  despair  to  the  tranquillity 
5 


66  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMOR1AM. 

of  such  an  assurance.  This  is  the 
greater  purpose  he  sets  before  him- 
self, a  purpose  which  includes  and 
glorifies  the  other.  That  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  object  is  in  the 
poet's  intention  is  indicated,  I  think, 
in  the  culminating  poems  cxxiii.  and 
cxxiv.,  where  in  turn  the  truths  of  im- 
mortality and  of  the  existence  of  God 
are  recorded  as  the  possession  of  his 
spiritual  consciousness,  acquired  from 
the  thought  which  precedes. 

Such  a  purpose  gives  natural  oppor- 
tunity to  weave  together  those  ideas 
which  the  poem's  bitter  occasion,  com- 
bined with  the  stirring  life  of  the  time, 
has  crowded  in  upon  the  poet's  mind. 
In  Memoriam  is  as  it  were  the  work- 
shop, where  the  stern  problems  of  life 
and  its  holiest  ideals  are  joined  to- 
gether in  one  noble  interpretation.  In 
a  remarkably  artistic  plan,  as  we  shall 
see,  this  design  is  elaborated  and  com- 
pleted, while  every  resource  of  the 
poet's  art  is  employed  to  build  and 
beautify  the  result. 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  67 

But  finely  artistic  as  it  is,  above  the  its  purpose 

.  ...  for  others. 

poem  s  art  stands  its  true  English  en- 
deavor to  be  of  practical  use.  For 
the  poet  himself,  first  of  all,  as  we 
have  seen, 

"  A  use  in  measured  language  lies," 

to  dull  pain  and  diffuse  the  shock  of 
sorrow,  as  well  as  to  be  the  vehicle  of 
a  worthy  purpose.  But  as  he  proceeds 
he  becomes  aware  that  the  answer  he 
seeks  is  not  for  himself  alone.  There 
are  others  who  hear  his  song,  and  who 
are  waiting  to  draw  from  it  a  comfort 
which,  perhaps,  they  may  not  find  un- 
aided. The  consciousness  that  the 
peace  of  others  as  well  as  of  himself 
depends  on  the  answer  is  made  indeed 
the  turning-point  of  the  poem.  When 
in  his  speculation  on  eternal  things 
the  poet  has  been  forced  to  leave  his 
most  agitated  questioning  unanswered, 
and  is  about  to  desist  in  despair  from 
his  venturous  purpose,  the  thought  of 
his  "  brethren  "  turns  him  tremblingly 
to  his  task  again  :  — 


68  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

"  Wherefore  grieve 
Thy  brethren  with  a  fruitless  tear  ? 
Abide  a  little  longer  here, 
Iviii.  3.  And  thou  shall  take  a  nobler  leave." 

And  when  thereafter  some  hallowed 
anniversary  comes  to  awaken  old  mem- 
ories, his  thought  wanders  abroad  to 
find  all  who  have  similar  experi- 
ence, — 

"  O,  wheresoever  those  may  be, 
xcix.  5.  Betwixt  the  slumber  of  the  poles,"  — 

and  as  their  brother  and  helper  he 
places  himself  in  spirit  by  their  side. 


V. 
The  poem's       Let  us  now  see  in  what  ways   the 

own  indica- 
tions of  its     poem  itself  avows  or  intimates  its  pur- 

fvrpose.  . 

pose,  and  with  what  fundamental  idea 
it  sets  out. 

In  Memoriam  starts  with  no  assump- 
tions, —  no  principle  to  be  taken  for 
granted,  no  hypothesis  to  be  proved. 
It  simply  stands,  as  we  all  must,  in 
the  chilling  presence  of  death,  with 
the  blank,  bewildered  feeling  that  be- 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  69 

reavement  universally  brings.  It  is 
because  the  poem  in  setting  out  is  ap- 
parently so  void  of  a  philosophy,  of  a 
controlling  idea,  that  it  has  incurred 
in  some  quarters  the  reproach  of  mor- 
bidness ;  but  it  is  also  by  reason  of  this 
very  fact  that  it  endears  itself  every- 
where to  those  who  mourn,  by  giving 
free  voice  to  the  sorrow  that  deadens 
thought. 

But  from  the  beginning  there  is 
a  longing,  —  which,  perhaps,  gathers 
strength  by  recoil  from  the  thought  of 
mortality,  —  the  longing,  namely,  after 
constancy.  The  mind  leaps  out  to 
find  something  that  shall  not  pass. 
Even  grief  is  holy  if,  by  outlasting 
time,  it  may  prove  that  the  heart  once 
loyal  is  loyal  forever.  Any  extremity 
of  grief  is  rather  to  be  chosen 

"  Than  that  the  victor  Hours  should  scorn 
The  long  result  of  love,  and  boast, 
'  Behold  the  man  that  loved  and  lost, 
But  all  he  was  is  overworn.' "  14. 

Thus  the  beginning  is  negative 
rather  than  positive :  it  is  the  heart's 


70  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

remonstrance  that  the  most  hallowed 
sentiments  of  life  should  not  begin  to 
perish  as  soon  as  the  dust  falls  on  a 
loved  one's  coffin.  And  this  after  all 
strikes  the  key-note  of  the  whole. 
What  follows  articulates  the  senti- 


tal  idea. 

ment,  broadens  it,  clarifies  it,  makes  it 
an  idea  instead  of  a  vague  emotion  ; 
but  it  remains  essentially  the  same. 
It  will  perhaps  be  of  advantage,  then, 
if  we  put  this  fundamental  idea  of  In 
Memoriam  in  the  form  of  a  propo- 
sition, which  I  think  may  be  thus 
stated  :  — 

THAT   LOVE    IS    INTRINSICALLY    IMMOR- 
TAL. 

All  the  achievements  of  thought  which 
make  In  Memoriam  so  victorious  a 
poem  are  simply  this  idea  raised  to  a 
higher  power,  with  its  interpretation 
for  life  and  history. 

It  is  the  poet's  avowed  object  to  fol- 
low this  idea  as  far  as  it  will  lead  ;  at 
least,  the  present  life  shall  not  prove  it 
false  :  — 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  /I 

"  I  long  to  prove 
No  lapse  of  moons  can  canker  Love."  xxvi.  i. 

And  when  the  thought  leads  him  far- 
ther than  this  world,  he  presses  on, 
with  the  awe  and  rapture  of  discovery, 
but  also  conscious  of  the  advancing 
victory  of  a  purpose,  until  in  the  final 
retrospect  he  may  even  congratulate 
himself  on  having  attained  a  worked- 
for  end :  — 

u  I  trust  I  have  not  wasted  breath : 
I  think  we  are  not  wholly  brain, 
Magnetic  mockeries ;  not  in  vain, 
Like  Paul  with  beasts,  I  fought  with  Death."     cxx.  i. 

The  consistency  of  this  purpose 
throughout  gives  to  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-one  sections  of  In  Memo- 
riam  an  absolute  unity  of  idea,  to 
which  every  smallest  detail  is  in  some 
way  naturally  related. 

There  is  also  in  the  framework  of  chorus- 
the  poem  a  device  by  which  the  "  in- 
creasing purpose  "  is  reenforced  from 
point  to  point.  The  attentive  reader 
cannot  well  fail  to  be  struck  by  the 
poet's  frequent  mention  of  his  art, 


72  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

especially  in  the  first  half  of  the  poem. 
In  these  references  he  dwells  on  the 
practical  use  which  he  finds  in  meas- 
ured language ;  as  if  the  elaborate  ex- 
pression of  his  mood  in  words  were 
the  most  natural  means  of  bringing 
the  calmer  mood.  This  is  indeed  his 
avowed  idea.  Poem  v.  expresses  it  at 
the  beginning,  when  the  song,  having 
as  yet  found  no  ray  of  hope  from  be- 
reavement, can  be  only  a  mechanical 
assuagement  of  pain.  Poem  cxxv.  in- 
dicates in  retrospect  how  the  same 
practical  purpose  has  always  been 
kept  in  view,  —  how  love  has  used  the 
song  to  express  its  mood,  sad  or  hope- 
ful, and  so  gather  strength  :  — 

"  And  if  the  song  were  full  of  care, 
He  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  song ; 
And  if  the  words  were  sweet  and  strong, 
«*v.  3.  He  set  his  royal  signet  there." 

In  examining  and  comparing  with 
one  another  these  poems  in  which 
mention  is  made  of  the  poet's  art,  we 
find  them  representative  of  a  class  of 
poems,  scattered  through  In  Memo- 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  73 

riam,  which  bear  much  the  same  re- 
lation to  the  others,  in  explaining  or 
suggesting,  as  the  chorus  of  a  Greek 
drama  to  the  dialogue  ;  for  which 
reason  I  call  them  chorus-poems.  The 
chorus  -  poems,  in  general,  are  those 
which  recognize  and  portray  the  sing- 
er's mood,  as  distinguished  from  those 
which  give  more  formal  expression  to 
his  thought ;  and  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  them  point  to  the  song  as 
answering  a  practical  purpose.  As 
related  to  the  others,  therefore,  these 
chorus-poems  show  the  joints  or  tran- 
sitions of  the  thought,  standing  always, 
as  we  shall  see,  at  the  beginning  or 
end  of  groups.  As  compared  with 
one  another,  they  show  an  interest- 
ing ascending  gradation.  In  them,  as 
generally,  the  poet  accomplishes  more 
than  he  professes  to  accomplish.  Pro- 
fessing only  to  portray  his  mood,  he 
cherishes  in  each  case  some  hidden 
suggestion  which  does  not  fail  to 
work  toward  greater  strength  and 


74  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

hope ;  and  so  the  avowed  practical 
device  of  assuaging  pain  by  song  is 
skillfully  made  to  work  out  the  greater 
purpose  which  the  poem  seeks.  The 
following  list  of  the  chorus-poems  will 
show  their  character  and  gradation. 
They  may  be  divided  into  two  groups, 
whose  general  character  is  suggested 
by  the  stanza  above  quoted. 

A.     WHILE  THE   SONG  IS  FULL  OF   CARE. 

1.  In  poem  v.,  where  only  despair 
reigns,  the  song  is  useful   in  a  nega- 
tive way,  to  dull  the  pain  of  bereave- 
ment. 

2.  In    poem   viii.,   where    the    be- 
reaved  is    awakened  to    look   about 
him,  but  finds  the  world  darkened  by 
the  constant  shadow  of  loss,  the  song 
is  cherished  as  an  expression  of  loy- 
alty to  the  memory  of  the  dead. 

3.  In   poem   xxi.,  where,  after  the 
dead   is   laid    to  rest,   the   survivor's 
heart  forebodes  a  mystery  in  death, 
the   continued   prompting  to   sing  is 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  75 

cherished,  in  spite  of  blame,  as  if  it 
were  a  guide  to  undiscovered  things. 

B.    WHILE  THE   SONG  GATHERS   SWEET- 
NESS AND   STRENGTH. 

4.  In  poem  xxxvii.,  where  the  hope 
suggested  by  Christmas   is  born,  the        * 
song  is  cherished  as  a  means  of  ex- 
pressing the  comfort  that  lies  in  re- 
vealed truth. 

5.  In  poem  xlviii.,  where  faith  has 
conquered  its  way  to  a  clear  convic- 
tion of  immortality,  the  song  is  cher- 
ished as  the  means  by  which  doubts 
are  made  vassal  to  love. 

6.  In  poem  xlix.,  where  a  less  com- 
forting course  of  thought  is  to  be  en- 
tered upon,   we    are   reminded    that 
though  the  song  may  show  gleams  of 
cheer  the  sorrow  remains. 

7.  In    poems   Ivii.-lix.,   where    the 
mind  reaches  the  climax  of  its  agita- 
tion in   its  unsatisfactory  attempt  to 
solve  the  mystery  of  human  destiny, 
the  three  chorus-poems  conduct  to  re- 


76  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

newed  cheer,  in  the  transition  of  hope 
from  Nature  to  God. 

8.  Finally,  in  poems  Ixxv.-lxxvii., 
where  the  last  difficulty  regarding  the 
loss  is  removed,  the  song,  even  though 
earthly  and  passing  soon  into  forget- 
fulness,  is  cherished  as  sweeter  than 
praise  or  fame. 

From  this  point,  as  the  heart  and 
brain  are  no  more  unquiet,  the  song  is 
so  much  more  than  the  perfunctory 
subserver  of  a  "  use  "  that  any  men- 
tion of  its  practical  office  is  superflu- 
ous. It  has  come  to  justify  itself. 

Throughout  these  examples  the 
growing  purpose  is  evident,  working 
always  more  than  it  professes.  These 
chorus-poems  have,  however,  avowed 
at  best  but  a  minor  purpose,  whose 
accomplishment  must  be  the  founda- 
tion of  a  greater  one.  As  these  cease 
this  greater  purpose  appears,  and  be- 
gins to  be  cherished  and  indicated  in 
words  which  increase  in  definiteness 
throughout  the  poem. 


THE  PURPOSE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  77 

In    Memoriam   thus   sets   itself    to  Lyrical,  not 

.    .  11-1  ill  r  didactic 

minister  help  m  the  most  helpless  of  methods. 
hours,  to  be  a  strength  and  a  comfort 
in  the  face  of  death.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, to  be  regarded  as  a  mere  didactic 
poem.  Against  such  an  interpretation 
of  its  intention  the  poem  is  not  slow 
to  remonstrate.  It  appeals  only  to 
such  as  have  sympathy  with  its  sad 
theme ;  and  for  these  it  accomplishes 
its  purpose,  in  spite  of  reproach,  by 
giving  full  expression  to  moods  which, 
as  the  poet  knows,  will  neither  please  See  nd. 
popular  tastes,  nor  permanently  rep- 
resent his  own  convictions.  Equally  seeEpi- 

...  .  logve,  $,  6. 

remote  is  any  intention  to  give  logic- 
ally conclusive  or  categorical  answers 
to  the  doubts  that  rise.  The  poem  is  See  xiviii. 
no  theological  treatise.  The  doubts 
are  answered  (to  quote  from  F.  W. 
Robertson),  "not  as -a  philosopher  Analysis  of 

.        In  Metnori- 

would  answer  them,  nor  as  a  theolo-  am,  preface 
gian,  or  a  metaphysician,  but  as  it  is 
the  duty  of  a  poet  to  reply,  by  intui- 
tive faculty,  in   strains   in  which  Im- 


78  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

agination  predominates  over  Thought 
and  Memory."  The  poem  adopts 
throughout  not  didactic  methods,  but 
lyrical ;  and  the  answers  it  obtains 
always  presuppose  the  existence  of 
that  emotional  frame  of  mind  which 
expresses  itself  in  song. 


THE  STRUCTURE  OF  IN  ME- 
MORIAM. 


"  No  poet  can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  fragments,  least 
of  all,  a  poet  like  Mr.  Tennyson,  whose  mind  conceives 
nothing  isolated,  nothing  abrupt,  but  every  part  with  ref- 
erence to  some  other  part,  and  in  subservience  to  the 
idea  of  the  whole."  — A.  H.  HALLAM'S  Remains- 


THE   STRUCTURE   OF   IN   ME- 
MORIAM. 

To  the  eye  In  Memoriam  presents  struct*™ 

not  obvious 

merely  a  series  of  poems,  of  various 
lengths,  numbered  from  i.  to  cxxxi. ; 
nor  is  there  obvious  to  a  cursory 
reader  any  plan  more  systematic  than 
this  simple  succession  of  number. 
How  these  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  short  poems  group  themselves, 
and  how  groups  and  single  poems  are 
related  to  each  other  so  as  to  form  to- 
gether one  united  work  of  art,  is  to  be 
found  only  by  careful  study  and  an- 
alysis of  its  idea. 

The  foregoing  comparisons  have  re-  General 

idtas. 

vealed  some  leading  ideas  characteriz- 
ing In  Memoriam  which  distinguish  it 
from  other  works  superficially  similar, 
or  which  relate  it  to  the  poet's  con- 
6 


82  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

temporary  productions.  As  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  these  leading  ideas,  we 
may  say,  speaking  roughly,  that  at  the 
beginning  In  Memoriam  fulfills  pre- 
dominantly the  character  of  an  elegy; 
in  the  middle  part  it  appears  predom- 
inantly as  a  memorial  of  friendship  ; 
and  in  the  latter  part  it  portrays  that 
greater  future  of  mankind  and  history 
which  was  a  favorite  idea  with  the  au- 
thor in  this  period.  These  three  char- 
acteristics thus  correspond  roughly 
with  the  three  divisions  into  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  poem,  after  its 
introductory  stage,  naturally  falls. 
The  bounds  of  these  ideas,  however, 
meet  and  blend  ;  and  one  is  made  so 
to  work  toward  and  into  the  other  that 
all  become  parts  of  a  greater  unity. 

Leaving  now  any  further  discussion 
of  the  poem's  general  characteristics,  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  how,  in  a  care- 
fully ordered  structure,  part  is  related 
to  part  and  to  the  whole  :  and  this, 
first,  by  gathering  and  interpreting 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  83 

any  hints  that  the  poem  may  contain 
of  its  own  structure  ;  secondly,  by  de- 
scribing in  outline  the  main  divisions 
of  the  poem  ;  and  finally,  by  following 
out  the  plan  in  detail. 


Some  hint  toward  the  poet's  plan,  Hints  of 

.     ,  ,  structure  in 

at  least  so  far  as  to  show  the  or-  the  poem. 
derly  progression  of  the  thought,  is 
furnished  by  a  consideration  of  the 
poems  that  have  been  added  since 
the  original  edition.  These  are  sug- 
gestive as  showing  where  and  how  the 
poet  found  the  chain  of  thought  lack- 
ing ;  and  what  must  be  the  course  of 
thought  which  finds  such  an  addition 
necessary  to  complete  it.  Doubly  sug- 
gestive they  are,  too,  because,  to  an 
unusual  degree,  they  depend  on  the 
context  for  their  interpretation  ;  they 
are  evidently  introduced  not  so  much 
to  add  new  thoughts  as  to  supply  new 
links  in  the  articulation  of  the  thought. 


84  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

LX.  The    first     of    these     intercalated 

poems,  added  in  the  fourth  edition, 
1851,  is  the  one  now  numbered  lix., 
beginning,  "  O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  live 
with  me."  The  similarity  of  expres- 
sion reminds  us  at  once  of  poem  iii. : 
"  O  Sorrow,  cruel  fellowship  ; "  and 
on  comparison  of  the  two  in  their  con- 
nection we  find  indeed  that  the  rela- 
tion is  more  than  one  of  form,  —  that 
the  later  poem  was  evidently  intended 
to  supplement  the  idea  introduced  by 
the  earlier.  While  poem  iii.  portrays 
only  the  utter  hopelessness  derivable 
from  Nature,  as  a  refuge  in  bereave- 
ment, making  sorrow  indeed  a  "cruel 
fellowship,"  poem  Ik.  supplements  this 
idea  by  the  thought  of  the  better  hope 
that  rises  when  faith,  though  with  trem- 
bling, learns  to  look  above  Nature  to 
One  who  can  be  apprehended  only  by 
being  believed  ;  thus  finding  Sorrow 
such  a  minister  of  sacred  peace, 

"That,  howsoe'er  I  know  thee,  some 
Could  hardly  tell  what  name  were  thine." 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  85 

See  how  the  idea  is  led  up  to  this 
conclusion  in  poems  liv.  to  Ivi.  The 
second  inserted  poem,  which  first  ap- 
peared  in  the  edition  of  1872-73,  is 
the  one  now  numbered  xxxix.,  begin- 
ning, "Old  warder  of  these  buried 
bones."  Taken  alone,  without  refer- 
ence to  preceding  and  following,  this 
poem  is  such  a  problem  that  some 
acute  critics  have  quite  failed  to  com- 
prehend the  poet's  purpose  in  intro- 
ducing it.1  Considered  in  its  connec- 

1  One  or  two  specimens  of  criticism  may  be  given. 
Dr.  Alfred  Gatty  (Key  to  Tennyson's  In  Memoriant, 
p.  43)  thinks  the  poem  was  "designed  to  shew  that  the 
Poet  was  desirous  not  to  convey  [in  Poem  ii.]  a  wrong 
impression  of  the  nature  of  the  Vew  tree.  It  does  really 
blossom,  and  form  fruit  and  seed  like  other  trees,  though 
few  may  have  noticed  this."  (!)  Dr.  Peter  Bayne  (Les- 
sonsfrom  my  Masters,  Carlyle,  Tennyson,  and  Ruikin, 
p.  3 18)  confesses  that  the  problem  baffles  him.  He  says: 
"  The  new  stanzas,  numbered  xxxix.,  are  among  the  most 
obscure  in  the  whole  compass  of  In  Memoriam.  These 
verses  have  an  interest  as  illustrating  Tennyson's  minute 
attention  to  natural  facts,  —  an  attention  almost  too  mi- 
nute to  be  followed  by  ordinary  observers.  [Follows  a 
specification.]  This  may  be  admirable  in  respect  of 
truth  to  nature,  and  may  afford  high  delight  to  those  who 
regard  it  as  the  perfection  of  poetry  to  give  play  to  end- 
less subtlety  in  the  interpretation  of  imagery  into  ethics 
and  emotion,  but  1  think  the  lines  abstruse  to  a  fault.'' 


86  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

4 

tion,  however,  and  with  its  allusions 
resolved,  it  is  simple  enough,  and 
supplies  a  very  important  link  in  the 
thought.  It  alludes,  as  does  the  other 
inserted  poem,  to  poem  iii.,  together 
with  ii.,  and  adds  another  link  in  the 
same  chain  of  references  to  sorrow 
and  nature,  by  showing  how  the  heart, 
which  sorrow  has  deadened  into  de- 
spair in  the  face  of  nature,  is  yet 
touched  and  cheered  by  the  awaking 
life  of  spring-tide.  If  now  we  compare 
these  two  added  poems  with  those  of 
like  sentiment  throughout  In  Memo- 
riam  (ii.,  iii.,  xxxix.,  xlix.,  lix.,  cxvi.), 
we  see  how  an  idea  is  conceived  as 
an  orderly  progression,  to  be  devel- 
oped by  systematic  steps.  The  same 
kind  of  progression  is  also  evident  in 
the  chorus -poems  already  described. 
From  the  evidences  of  arrangement 
thus  brought  to  our  notice  we  look  for 
a  similar  regard  to  artistic  structure 
throughout  the  poem. 

The  most  striking  external  indica- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  8/ 

tion  of  the  poet's  plan  is  furnished  by 
the  recurring  Christmas-tides.  Three 
such  occasions  are  mentioned  in  the 
poem  (xxviii.-xxx.,  Ixxviii.,  civ.  cv.), 
which  occasions,  together  with  some 
other  known  dates,  cause  the  action 
of  the  poem  (if  such  it  can  be  called) 
to  run  through  a  period  of  some- 
thing more  than  two  and  a  half  years. 
These  Christmas-tides  are  character- 
ized by  the  poet  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  show  intentional  reference  to  each 
other.  The  following  couplets  are  suf- 
ficient indication  of  this.  Of  the  first 
Christmas-tide  the  description  is  :  — 

"  A  rainy  cloud  possess'd  the  earth, 
And  sadly  fell  our  Christmas  eve."  xzx.  I. 

Of  the  second  :  — 

"  The  silent  snow  possess'd  the  earth, 
And  calmly  fell  our  Christmas  eve."  IxxviiL  i. 

Of  the  third :  — 

"  We  live  within  the  stranger's  land, 
And  strangely  falls  our  Christmas  eve."          cv.  I. 

These  couplets  occur  in  each  case  in 
the  first  stanza  of  the  description,  and 
seem  designed  to  emphasize,  by  im- 


88  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

agery  and  association,  the  facts  of  sad- 
ness, calmness,  and  strangeness,  which 
form  the  background  of  a  progressing 
experience. 

What  part  do  these  Christmas-tides 
play  in  the  poem  ?  An  expression  in 
the  account  of  the  third  Christmas- 
tide  will  perhaps  furnish  an  indication. 
Poem  cv.  7  closes  with  the  words  :  — 

"  Run  out  your  measured  arcs,  and  lead 
The  closing  cycle  rich  in  good." 

Here,  from  Christmas,  with  its  holy 
meanings,  the  poet  looks  forward  to  the 
last  and  crowning  cycle  of  the  ages, 
that  majestic  period  glorified  by 

"  one  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves," 

and  this  outlook  gives  meaning  to  the 
whole  succeeding  part  of  the  poem.  A 
similar  though  less  comprehensive  out- 
look is  suggested  by  the  first  Christmas- 
tide;  see  xxx.  8.  The  second  Christ- 
mas-tide opens,  as  do  the  others,  a  new 
course  of  thought ;  but  there  is  a  special 
reason  for  delaying  the  avowal  of  it  un- 


STRUCTURE    OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  g 

til  New  Year.  It  would  seem,  then,  that 
the  poem  comprises  different  cycles  of 
thought,  to  each  of  which  Christmas, 
standing  at  the  head,  gives  significance ; 
and  when  we  compare  with  one  another 
the  cycles  thus  introduced,  we  find  that 
all  have  a  similar  structure,  and  that 
each  contributes  its  part  in  an  advanc- 
ing and  broadening  series. 

Other  seasons  and  occasions  have 
also  their  part  to  fulfill.  Such  are 
springtide,  New  Year,  Arthur  Hallam's 
birthday,  and  the  anniversary  of  his 
death.  These  are  in  no  case  intro- 
duced arbitrarily;  but  always  the  sig- 
nificance that  the  season  has  in  itself 
is  infused  into  the  spirit  of  the  poem. 

II. 

The  foregoing  indications  of  struc-  Outline  of  \ 
ture,  together  with  some  other  points 
which  a  careful  study  of  the  bearings 
of  the  thought  reveals,  form  a  regular 
framework  for  the  poem,  which  may 


90  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

be  arranged  according  to  the  follow- 
ing table  :  — 

PROLOGUE. 
Sntrobuctori?  &tage.    I.  — XXVII. 

PROSPECT I. — VI. 

DEFINING-POINT  —  BEGINNING        .  .       VII. 

ARRIVAL  AND   BURIAL  OF  THE   DEAD 

XVII.  — XX. 

tftrst  Cpefe.     XXVIII.  —  LXXVII. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE    .  .  .      XXVIII.  —  XXX. 

SPRINGTIDE        .  .  .        XXXVIII.,  XXXIX. 

FIRST  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE   DEATH      LXXII. 

&ceonb  Cprte.    LXXVIII.  —  CIII. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE        ....      LXXVIII. 

NEW  YEAR LXXXIII. 

SECOND  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE   DEATH    XCIX. 

®&irb  Ciorte.    CIV.  — CXXXI. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE       ....      CIV.,  CV. 

NEW  YEAR CVI. 

BIRTHDAY  OF   DECEASED   (FEB.  I)  .  .   CVII. 

SPRINGTIDE  ....      CXV.,  CXVI. 

DEFINING-POINT  —  END  .  .  .   CXIX. 

RETROSPECT  AND  CONCLUSION    CXX.— CXXXI- 

EPILOGUE. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  91 

According  to  the  above  table  we  are 
to  find  the  thought  of  the  poem  de- 
veloped in  three  cycles,  preceded  by 
an  introductory  stage.  These  cycles 
present,  of  course,  very  different  lines 
of  thought,  which  necessitate  differ- 
ences in  arrangement.  In  all  three, 
however,  the  procedure  is  fundamen- 
tally the  same.  Each  cycle  is  intro- 
duced by  Christmas-tide.  Then  fol- 
lows a  series  of  poems  (in  the  Third 
Cycle  a  single  poem),  in  which  the 
thought  characteristic  of  the  cycle  is 
suggested  in  outline.  Following  this, 
each  cycle  introduces  its  characteris- 
tic season  or  anniversary,  —  the  First 
Cycle  Springtide,  the  Second  New- 
Year,  the  Third  the  Birthday  of  the 
Deceased,  —  which  season  suggests 
the  general  spirit  of  its  cycle.  The 
leading  thought  of  the  cycle,  having 
been  thus  suggested  and  introduced, 
is  now  followed  out  at  length,  in  a 
series  of  poems  which  make  up  the 
principal  bulk  of  the  cycle.  This  pres- 


92  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO  R I  AM. 

entation  of  the  thought  is  followed,  in 
the  first  and  second  cycles,  by  the  an- 
niversary of  the  death,  which  in  each 
case  gives  occasion  to  meet  and  dis- 
pose of  a  last  difficulty  opposed  by 
the  poet's  mood  to  the  full  reception 
of  the  thought,  and  thus  makes  the 
triumph  of  the  cycle  complete.  In 
room  of  such  a  reminder  of  death, 
the  third  cycle  closes  its  course  of 
thought  and  that  of  the  poem  by  a 
new  springtide,  whose  suggestiveness 
is  obvious. 

The  separate  cycles  I  need  here 
describe  no  further  than  to  show  their 
mutual  relation,  as  presenting  each  an 
ordered  step  in  one  progressive  idea. 
The  development  of  this  idea  takes  in 
a  field  of  view  ranging  from  the  past 
through  the  present  to  the  future,  and 
from  individual  cares  through  the  calm 
of  new  friendship  to  a  hope  and  happi- 
ness for  all  the  race.  Each  cycle  pre- 
sents its  proper  phase  of  this  advanc- 
ing and  broadening  thought. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  93 

In  the  Introductory  Stage,  which 
begins  where  tidings  are  first  received 
of  Arthur  Hallam's  death,  we  see  the 
individual  soul  of  the  poet,  bereaved, 
alone,  overwhelmed  with  sudden  grief. 
It  is  the  poet's  part  in  this  stage  to 
awake  from  the  confusion  of  despair, 
and  to  find  firm  ground  in  the  con- 
sciousness that  love  is  holy  and  worthy 
to  be  cherished,  though  its  object  be 
forever  removed. 

The  First  Cycle,  which  interprets 
the  past  love,  for  dead  as  for  living, 
may  be  called  the  Cycle  of  the  Past. 
It  begins  by  adopting  the  thought, 
suggested  in  Christmas-tide,  that  the 
dead  friend  is  living  in  an  unseen 
world.  So  in  this  cycle  two  friends 
are  before  us ;  but  the  one  is  out  of 
sight  and  recognizable  only  by  faith, 
while  the  survivor  interprets  the 
friend's  state  by  his  own  love,  which 
is  conjectured  to  have  as  deathless 
effect  there  as  here  ;  and  so  both, 
though  separate,  are  beheld  as  draw- 


94  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

ing  influence  from  the  same  past  ex- 
perience. 

The  Second  Cycle,  which  seeks  the 
possibility  of  present  communion  with 
the  immortal  friend,  may  be  called  the 
Cycle  of  the  Present.  But  commun- 
ion with  the  dead  is  viewed  as  obtain- 
able only  in  one  way,  namely,  by 
cherishing  such  community  of  spirit 
with  the  living  as  the  dead  would 
have  cherished  had  he  lived.  So 
this  new  relation  to  the  unseen  world, 
when  at  last  it  is  attained,  is  con- 
joined with  a  new  friendship  here,  by 
which  also  the  ties  of  this  world  are 
strengthened. 

The  Third  Cycle,  which  views  the 
blessedness  that  is  to  be  when  all 
men  find  their  highest  manhood  in 
the  same  holy  love,  may  be  called  the 
Cycle  of  the  Future.  The  poet's  sym- 
pathies here  reach  their  broadest  ex- 
pression, in  his  hope  for  that  nobler 
race,  of  which  his  dead  friend  may  be 
regarded  as  a  worthy  type. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  95 


III. 
In  such  a  framework  as  the  above  introduction 

to  detailed 

the   poet   has   a  very  suggestive  and  account  of 

.  .       .         structure. 

comprehensive  means  of  introducing 
those  inquiries  concerning  God  and 
man  and  unseen  things  which  fulfill 
the  deeper  purpose  of  In  Memoriam. 
Introduced  thus,  they  fall  into  place 
as  the  inquiries  that  naturally  rise  in 
the  progress  from  despair  to  hope,  of 
a  soul  that  holds  by  its  holiest  convic- 
tions ;  and  thus  they  give  to  In  Memo- 
riam the  double  interest  of  a  spiritual- 
psychological  history  and  of  a  devout 
guide  to  a  rational  faith.  That  these 
inquiries  are  merely  "  philosophische 
Griibeleien  jugendlicher  Art,"  —  phil- 
osophic subtilties  of  rather  juvenile 
character,  —  as  an  off-hand  German 
critic  has  called  them,  the  careful 
student  will  be  as  little  disposed  to 
admit  as  he  would  the  same  critic's 
assertion  that  In  Memoriam  is  with- 


96  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAL. 

out  unity  or  arrangement.  To  such 
ready  criticism  the  poem's  living  influ- 
ence on  the  deepest  thought  of  its  age 
is  conclusive  answer. 

On  the  basis  of  the  foregoing  out- 
line we  will  now  analyze  the  poem 
section  by  section,  and  indicate  by  a 
brief  abstract  of  each  how  the  whole 
structure  of  the  thought  is  grouped 
and  related. 


PROLOGUE. 

The  Prologue  is  dated  1849,  the 
year  before  In  Memoriam  was  given 
to  the  world.  It  therefore  views 
the  body  of  the  poem  as  essentially 
complete,  and  gathers  into  itself  the 
greatest  and  highest  achievement  of 
its  thought.  Logically,  however,  it 
precedes ;  the  highest  thought,  which 
the  poem  reaches  by  long  struggle, 
being  also  the  deepest,  underlying  the 
whole. 

The  relation  of  the  Prologue  to  the 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  97 

body  of  the  poem  is  well  indicated  by 
its  form  as  an  invocation.  It  bears 
to  the  poem  the  same  relation  that 
prayer  bears  to  work,  the  same  rela- 
tion that  the  spirit  of  dependence  on 
a  higher  Power  bears  to  the  spirit  of 
self-reliant  activity  in  practical  life. 
The  poem  moves  in  the  scenery  of  the 
world  we  see,  which  is  overshadowed 
by  the  mystery  of  sorrow  and  death. 
The  Prologue  addresses  itself  to  the 
world  we  do  not  see,  and  by  faith  rec- 
ognizes in  that  world  a  divine  Love 
in  whose  light  all  mysteries  are  made 
clear.  But  further,  as  the  poem  ad- 
vances through  the  saddened  world, 
itself  comes  at  last,  after  long  conflict 
and  questioning,  to  the  vision  of  the 
same  love  ;  which  thus  becomes  the 
key  to  the  whole  poem.  The  Prologue 
thus  begins  where  the  poem  culmi- 
nates, by  naming  and  presupposing 
that  love  at  the  outset ;  it  also  adds  to 
the  poem's  idea  of  the  love  by  ascrib- 
ing to  it  a  divine  name  and  nature. 
7 


98  TENNYSOATS  IN  MEMORIAM. 

The  first  stanza  of  the  Prologue 
contains  in  outline  its  whole  succeed- 
ing thought : — 

"  Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 

Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  thy  face, 
By  faith,  and  faith  alone,  embrace, 
Believing  where  we  cannot  prove." 

The  names  here  given  to  the  ob- 
ject invoked  call  for  some  special  re- 
mark, because  in  them  lies  deeply  in- 
volved the  whole  philosophy  of  the 
poem.  The  second  of  these  names  — 
"  immortal  Love  "  —  is  simply  the 
name  of  that  pure  affection  which,  as 
human  love  of  friend  for  friend, 

"  rose  on  stronger  wings, 
Unpalsied  when  he  met  with  Death," 

and  so  has  worked  as  an  ennobling 
power  within  the  poet's  soul.  The  re- 
markable fact  concerning  it  here  is 
that  it  is  recognized  as  invokable,  that 
it  is  named  as  a  proper  object  of  ado- 
ration. The  first  of  these  names  — 
"  strong  Son  of  God  "  —  supplies  the 
idea  in  which  alone  such  adoration  of 
an  affection  is  possible.  Immortal 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  99 

Love  is  recognized  not  only  as  an  af- 
fection within  us,  but  as  an  entity 
above  us.  Within  us,  the  poem  has 
followed  the  course  of  immortal  Love 
as  that  hallowing  power  which  trans- 
forms the  individual,  and  through  the 
individual  is  adapted  to  transform  the 
race,  into  something  nobler,  into  the 
image  of  the  divine.  Above  us,  the 
Prologue  views  immortal  Love  as  a 
divine  Object  of  faith  and  love,  to  be 
worshiped  and  obeyed,  to  be  recog- 
nized as  at  the  same  time  the  source 
and  the  goal  of  our  noblest  life. 

This  twofold  character  of  immortal 
Love  is  yet  more  closely  indicated  by 
the  remarkable  expression,  "  strong 
Son  of  God."  No  devout  man  can  set 
aside  the  fundamental  article  of  faith 
that  God  is  love.  But  the  Son  of  God, 
who  being  God  is  also  love,  is  both 
God  and  man ;  and  being  man  is  the 
Son  of  man,  the  archetypal  man,  who 
embodies  perfectly  our  ideal  manhood. 
Therefore  the  love  which  He  is,  is 


100  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

at  the  same  time  our  Lord  above  us 
and  our  holiest  manhood  within.  The 
deepest  philosophy  of  the  poem,  whose 
work  it  is  to  find  what  is  sacredest  in 
love,  is  thus  involved  in  the  fact  that 
it  addresses  the  divine -human  Christ 
and  identifies  Him  with  immortal 
Love ;  but  the  same  philosophy  re- 
quires also  that  the  address  be  to  the 
Christ-nature  rather  than  to  the  Christ- 
name.  It  is  divine  love  which  has 
actually  appeared  incarnate  in  his- 
tory ;  but  what  is  more  to  the  pres- 
ent purpose,  it  does  appear  daily  as  a 
moulding  power  in  men's  lives,  while 
it  does  not  cease  to  be  Lord  above 
them. 

The  faith  by  which  we  apprehend 
this  divine -human  Love  shows  the 
same  twofold  aspect  indicated  in  the 
object  itself.  Because  immortal  Love 
is  our  noblest  manhood  cherished 
within,  faith  in  it  is  the  intelligent  and 
determined  cherishing  of  an  idea ;  its 
exercise  involves  "believing  where  we 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  IOI 

cannot  prove."  Because  immortal 
Love  is  the  divine  Power  above  us, 
to  whom  our  service  rightly  belongs, 
faith  in  Him  is  the  committal  of  life 
and  destiny  to  a  will  not  our  own  ;  by 
it  we  "  embrace  "  One  whom  not  see- 
ing we  love  and  obey. 

The  thought  thus  suggested  in  the 
first  stanza  of  the  Prologue  is  ex- 
panded in  the  rest.  The  remainder 
of  the  Prologue  may  be  thus  ana- 
lyzed :  — 

A.     THE  OBJECT  INVOKED. 
"  Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love." 

1.  Immortal  Love,  the  strong  Son 
of  God,  is  divine. 

The   Possessor  of    all  things,   the  stanzas 
creative  Spirit,  the  Author  of  life  and 
death,  the  Resurrection  and  Power  of 
an  endless  life. 

2.  Immortal  Love,  the  strong  Son 
of  God,  is  human. 

The  highest,  holiest   manhood,  the       4,  s- 
rightful  Lord  of  our  wills,  the  perfect 


IO2  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO RI AM. 

light  of  which  all  our  systems  are  but 
broken  gleams. 

B.  THE    APPREHENSION    OF  THAT    OB- 

JECT. 
"  By  faith,  and  faith  alone." 

4.  i.  Because    He  is   human,  and   so 

the  head  of  our  humanity,  the  faith 
by  which  we  apprehend  Him  requires 
the  loyal  submission  of  our  will  to  his 
wiser  will. 

6j  7.  2.  Because  He  is  divine,  and  so  in- 

finitely greater  than  our  capacities  of 
knowledge,  the  faith  by  which  we  ap- 
prehend Him  adds  to  our  knowledge, 
reverence  and  humility. 

C.  THE    UNWORTHINESS    OF    THE     AP- 

PREHENDER. 
"  We  are  fools  and  slight." 

The  thought  of  what  we  may  and 
should  be  suggests  only  too  sharply 
the  contrasted  thought  of  what  we 
are  ;  and  this  thought  gives  voice  to 
the  cry  of  our  universal  need,  —  the 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  1 03 

need  of  help,   of  forgiveness,  of  wis- 
dom. 

1.  A  prayer  for  help  —  to  bear  the        8. 
light  of  divine  love. 

2.  A  prayer  for  forgiveness,   in   a 
threefold  petition  :  — 

a.  Forgive  what  is  sinful  in  the  love        9. 
cherished  for  the  dead,  which  seemed 
worthy  by  human  standard,  but  in  the 
pure  light  of  divine  love  seems  mean 

and  poor. 

b.  Forgive  what  is  sinful  in  the  sor-       10. 
row  for  the  dead,  a  grief  which,  so  far 

as  it  idolized  the  creature  apart  from 
the  Creator,  was  unworthily  cherished. 

c.  Forgive  what  is  sinful  in  the  song,        n. 
so    far   as   it  fails  to  give    adequate 
expression  to    the    truth    that    faith 
receives. 

3.  A  prayer  for  wisdom  —  to  see       n. 
things  in  God's  light. 

"  And  in  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise." 

Thus  In  Memoriam  is  introduced 
by  an  invocation,  which,  from  the  be- 
ginning recognizing  immortal  Love  as 


104  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

Lord  over  all,  sets  before  that  Love  in 
prayer  the  needs  of  this  life,  as  they 
rise  out  of  its  saddest  experience.  The 
poem,  which  begins  with  the  experi- 
ence, struggles  at  first  through  dark- 
ness and  doubt,  seeing  its  love  only 
as  human,  though  hallowed  by  death; 
but  at  last,  after  many  achievements  of 
faith,  it  comes  also  to  unite  its  highest 
human  affection  with  the  divine ;  and 
so  the  poem  ends  with  invocation  and 
prayer  (see  poems  cxxix.-cxxxi.),  as  in 
the  Prologue  it  began. 


3Introbuctorp 
i.  -  xxvn. 

"  They  said  that  Love  would  die  when  Hope  was  gone, 
And  Love  moum'd  long,  and  sorrow'd  after  Hope ; 
At  last  she  sought  out  Memory,  and  they  trod 
The  same  old  paths  where  Love  had  walk'd  with 

Hope, 
And  Memory  fed  the  soul  of  Love  with  tears." 

—  The  Lover's  Tale, 

introduc-         The  monodramatic  action,  if  such  it 
may  be  called,  of  In  Memoriam  begins 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  10$ 

at  the  point  where  tidings  are  first  re- 
ceived of  Arthur  Hallam's  death.  The 
blank  confusion  and  despair  attendant 
on  the  first  shock  of  grief  is  described 
in  poem  vii.,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  starting-point  of  the  action,  the 
six  poems  preceding  being  prefatory 
and  prospective.  Beginning  with  poem 
vii.,  a  period  of  unquiet  suspense  en- 
sues as  long  as  the  dead  friend's  re- 
mains, which  are  being  brought  home- 
ward, are  on  the  seas.  Not  until  the 
body  arrives  and  is  laid  to  rest  in  Eng- 
lish earth  does  the  mind  of  the  surviv- 
ing friend  begin  to  gather  firmness ; 
and  from  this  point  (xviii.)  onward 
are  shaped  by  degrees  those  thoughts 
and  longings  which  form  the  worthy 
achievement  of  this  introductory  stage. 
The  characteristic  of  this  introduc- 
tory stage  is  resolution  and  inquiry. 
From  the  absorbing  presence  of  sor- 
row resolution  is  first  shaped  not  to  be 
driven  aimlessly  at  the  mercy  of  loss. 
Afterward  the  unquiet  consciousness 


IO6  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

of  the  present  and  the  calmer  view  of 
the  past  both  give  rise  to  inquiries 
whose  answer  lays  the  firm  ground  on 
which  the  succeeding  thought  of  the 
poem  is  built. 


PROSPECT.    I.-VI. 

Poem\.  The  opening   poem  is  prefatory  of 

the  whole.  It  looks  forward  into  the 
way  to  be  taken,  and  in  a  few  words 
indicates  it ;  not  its  end,  but  its  direc- 
tion. 

The  principle  cherished  before  be- 
reavement — 

"  That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things  "  — 

is  in  this  bitter  experience  to  be 
tested  ;  if  it  is  true,  it  must  make  loss 
yield  a  gain.  But  a  real  advance  to 
"  higher  things  "  can  be  found  only  in 
such  a  recovery  from  grief  as  cherishes 
grief  with  love,  repressing  neither  for 
the  sake  of  speedier  calm,  but  recog- 
nizing the  holiness  of  both.  Time 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  IO/ 

must  not  be  stronger  than  love,  even 
though  love  riot  in  pain. 

The  poet  having  thus  committed 
himself  to  the  ascent  to  higher  things, 
preparation  for  it  is  made  and  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  situation  confessed  in 
a  series  of  poems  presenting  three 
stages. 

A.    FROM    UTTER    DEPRESSION    TO    RES- 
OLUTION. 

1.  Despair.  The  yew-tree,  the  church-        n. 
yard  guardian  of  the  dead,  stands,  in 

its  changeless  gloom,  as  a  fit  emblem 
of  the  survivor's  stony  sorrow. 

2.  Questioning.     Sorrow  has  robed        m. 
the  world  in  her  own  hopeless  gloom, 
blindly  interpreting   all    the   glory  of 
Nature  as   only  reflecting  her  image. 
Shall     she,  then,    be     cherished     or 
crushed  ? 

3.  Resolution.     From  the   troubled        iv. 
introspective  dream,  in  which  all  de- 
termining power  is  for  the  time  utterly 
passive,  the  will  awakes  to  a  sense  of 


108  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

its  inaction,  and  resolves  not  to  give 
way  to  despair. 

B.  POESY   THE    INTERPRETER    AND    AS- 

SUAGER   OF   GRIEF. 

v.  There  is  some  negative  relief  in  the 

exercise  of  expressing  sorrow  in  met- 
trical  language.  Poesy  shall  there- 
fore be  cherished  for  its  practical  of- 
fice. 

C.  THE    LOSS    THAT    MUST    REMAIN    IR- 

REPARABLE. 

n.  There  is  no  consolation  in  the  com- 

monplace attempts  to  comfort.  The 
grief  to  be  overcome  is  a  grief  that  has 
special  elements  of  bitterness,  even 
when  compared  with  a  father's  or 
mother's  grief  for  an  absent  son ;  for 
in  this  case  hopes  were  built  on  the 
lost  one's  speedy  presence.  The  poet's 
loss  can  no  more  be  replaced  than 
could  that  of  a  betrothed  maiden,  who 
has  had  her  hopes  dashed  just  at  their 
highest  by  her  lover's  sudden  death. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  109 


DEFINING-POINT :  BEGINNING.   VII. 

As  the  foregoing  poems  indicate  a 
resolution  to  rise  to  higher  things,  it 
is  natural,  when  the  resolution  is 
formed,  to  recognize  at  the  outset 
what  is  that  lowest  point  from  which 
the  ascent  is  to  be  made.  This  point 

—  the   utter  desolateness   consequent 
on  the  sudden  shock  of  bereavement 

—  is   well   indicated   by  the  feelings 
with  which   the  former  residence  of 
the  deceased  is  visited,  as  also  by  the 
surroundings  of  weather  and  scenery. 
The    structure    of    the    verse    corre- 
sponds  also  with   this  blank   desola- 
tion :  notice  especially,  in  stanza  3,  the 
harsh  sibilants  in  the  third  line,  and 
the  intentionally  hard  alliteration  and 
utter  want  of  rhythm  in  the  last  line. 

The  similar  defining -point  at  the 
end,  in  poem  cxix.,  will  indicate  how 
great  is  the  ascent,  and  how  well  the 
poet  accomplishes  his  purpose. 


IIO  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

From  this  point  to  the  first  Christ- 
mas-tide (xxviii.-xxx.)  is  predomi- 
nantly a  period  of  inquiry.  The  first 
inquiry  is  prompted  by  the  unquiet 
mind  in  its  troubled  consciousness  of 
the  present.  This  is  followed  by  the 
arrival  and  burial  of  the  dead,  which 
event  causes  a  degree  of  restfulness, 
and  turns  the  survivor's  thought  to  the 
past.  Then,  from  the  calmer  view  of 
the  past  a  second  inquiry  is  suggested. 
The  answer  to  both  these  inquiries  re- 
veals clearly  the  supreme  desire  which 
gives  meaning  to  In  Memoriam,  the 
gradual  realization  of  which  occasions 
all  its  achievements  in  thought  and 
hopefulness. 

THE  UNQUIET  PRESENT.    VIII.-XVI. 

vm.  Introduced  by  chorus-poem,  which, 

confessing  that  sorrow  has  darkened 
every  well-known  pleasant  spot,  yet 
cherishes  the  song  that  once  pleased 
the  dead. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 1 1 

A.    THE  HEART  WITH  THE  COMING  SHIP. 

1.  Following  the  ship  in  spirit,  with        ix. 
desire  for  a  quiet  voyage. 

2.  Following  the  ship  in  spirit,  with        x. 
desire  that  its  voyage   may  soon   be 
done,  and  the  body  be  at  rest  in  his 
native  soil. 

B.    THE    HEART   IN   CALM. 

A  calm  morning  infuses  to  some  de-        xi. 
gree  its  quiet  into  the  bereaved  mind. 
This  calmness,  however,  is  only  a  calm 
despair. 

1.  First  mood.     The   spirit  follows       XH. 
the    advancing    ship,    half     doubtful 
whether  the  dead  friend's  arrival  can 
bring  rest. 

2.  Second  mood.     Dreamy  state,  in       xm. 
which  the  bereaved  one's  woe  seems 

half  strange,  and  his  fancies  rise,  be- 
ing a  little  released  from  the  tyranny 
of  loss. 

3.  Third   mood.     The  bereavement       xiv. 
seems  almost  unreal,   and  fancy  pic- 
tures the  living  friend  as  coming. 


112  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

C.   THE   HEART   IN    STORM. 

xv.  A  tempestuous  night  suddenly  dis- 

pels this  hollow  calm,  and  produces  a 
revulsion  to  unrest  so  wild  that  but 
for  the  merciful  alleviating  influence 
of  fancy  it  would  be  unbearable. 

INQUIRY. 

xvi.  This  revulsion  in  feeling  startles  the 

mind  to  inquiry. 

"Can  calm  despair  and  wild  unrest 

Be  tenants  of  a  single  breast, 
Or  sorrow  such  a  changeling  be  ?  " 

What  does  all  this  mean  ?  Are  these 
merely  changing  moods  of  an  un- 
changed self?  Has  the  shock  only 
confused  his  thought  but  left  his  heart 
the  same  ? 

This  first  inquiry  is  a  real  step  up- 
ward, and  though  unanswered  is  im- 
portant as  an  act  of  inquiry,  for  it 
turns  the  bereaved  one's  mind  to  his 
own  helpless  state.  Thought  is  be- 
ginning to  take  the  place  of  stunned 
despair. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  113 

ARRIVAL  AND  BURIAL  OF  THE 
DEAD.    XVII. -XX. 

The  ship  that  brings  the  dead  friend      xvn. 
is  greeted  with  blessings,  and  conse- 
crated to  special  good  fortune  in  the 
future. 

With  the  burial  in  the  restful  sur-  xvm. 
roundings  of  the  English  landscape 
comes  also  a  feeling  of  rest  to  the  be- 
reaved mind,  which  from  this  point 
sets  itself  to  gather  firmness  from  en- 
durance and  from  hallowed  memory. 

The  first  result  of  this  more  restful 
feeling  is  ability  to  contemplate  his 
sorrow,  not  with  the  bewildered  feel- 
ings of  one  stunned  by  a  sudden 
shock,  but  with  the  calmness  of  one 
who  has  gained  control  of  mind  and 
fancy.  Two  poems  portray  the  result 
of  such  contemplation. 

i.  Grief  that  ebbs  and  flows.     Like       xix. 
the  Wye,  in  whose  hearing  the  dead 
is  laid  ; —  as  the  incoming  or  outgoing 
tide  makes  the  river  silent  or  vocal,  so 
8 


1 14  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

there  are  moods  of  grief  that  forbid 
utterance,  and  others  that  permit  it. 
xx.  2.  The  love  that  chokes  grief's  ut- 

terance. The  servants  in  a  desolated 
house  can  speak  their  master's  praises 
volubly;  but  the  children,  who  love 
more,  are  silent.  So  with  the  lighter 
and  heavier  moods  of  grief. 


THE   HALLOWED   PAST.     XXI.-XXV. 

Introduced  by  chorus  -  poem,  in 
which  the  continued  prompting  to 
sing,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  dead 
is  laid  to  rest,  is  justified  as  a  spon- 
taneous utterance  which  it  is  better  not 
to  check. 

1.  Review  of  the  five  years  of  friend- 
ship with  Arthur  Henry  Hallam  :   how 
every  season   was   crowned   with   the 
sweetness  of  friendly  communion,  and 
how  in  the  fifth  year  the  shadow  Death 
invaded  it  and  bore  the  friend  out  of 
sight. 

2.  How  the  past,   as  the  survivor 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 1 5 

views  it  before  Death  suddenly  dark- 
ened his  world,  is  brightened  by  a 
glory  which  in  the  present  light  or  to 
a  dispassionate  view  would  seem  al- 
most too  great  to  be  real. 

INQUIRY. 

This  vivid  feeling  of  contrast  be-      xxiv. 
tween  the  past  and  the  present  sug- 
gests a  second  inquiry  :  — 

44  And  was  the  day  of  ray  delight 
As  pure  and  perfect  as  I  say  ? " 

How  is  it  that  that  hallowed  past  is 
invested  with  such  a  glory  ?  Can  it 
be  too  fair  a  vision,  appearing  so  great 
because  of  the  intervening  haze  of 
grief,  or  so  perfect  because  the  dis- 
tant view  changes  it  from  nebula  to 
orbic  form  ? 

The  answer  to  this  inquiry  is  also       xxv. 
by  implication   an   answer  to   the  in- 
quiry of  poem  xvi.    The  secret  of  the 
past  glory,  as  also  the  secret  of  the 
present  confusedness,  is  LOVE,  which 


1  1  6  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

hallowed  all  intercourse  with  Arthur, 
and  made  every  burden  a  joy.  For  be- 
tween friend  and  friend  burdens  were 
halved  by  love.  "But  one  Thing  is 
most  Admirable,"  says  Bacon,  "which 
is,  that  this  Communicating  of  a  Mans 
Selfe  to  his  Frend,  works  two  contrarie 
Effects  ;  For  it  redoubleth  loyes,  and 
cutteth  Griefes  in  Halfes.  For  there  is 
no  Man,  that  imparteth  his  loyes  to  his 
Frend,  but  he  ioyeth  the  more  ;  And 
no  Man,  that  imparteth  his  Griefes  to 
his  Frend,  but  hee  grieueth  the  lesse." 


The  love  that  hallowed  the  past  still 
lives,  its  purity  and  power  in  no  way 
diminished  by  bereavement  and  sepa- 
ration. It  remains  a  blessed  influence 
on  the  survivor,  in  all  the  dreary  pres- 
ent ;  may  it  therefore  continue  unim- 
paired in  all  the  future.  This  is  the 
supreme  desire  of  In  Memoriam,  on 
which  its  coming  achievements  of 
faith  are  built  :  — 

"  I  long  to  prove 

No  lapse  of  moons  can  canker  Love, 
Whatever  fickle  tongues  may  say." 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 17 

Such  love  is  indeed  the  life  of  life; 
and  if  I  must  expect  //  to  pass  with 
time,  let  rather  death  and  oblivion 
cover  me  at  once. 

To  cherish  and  express  such  a  de-  Xxvn. 
sire  is  of  itself  a  profound  satisfaction 
only  less  than  fulfillment.  The  mem- 
ory of  such  a  love,  and  its  continued 
life  in  loss,  is  far  better  than  any  state 
wherein  any  trait  of  love  —  its  passion, 
or  its  purity,  or  its  fidelity  —  is  absent, 
even  though  the  want  of  it  brings  rest. 
Such  rest  is  "  want-begotten  :  "  it  be- 
tokens something  less  than  true  man- 
hood. 

"  I  hold  it  true,  whate'er  befall ; 
I  feel  it,  when  I  sorrow  most ; 
'T  is  better  to  have  loved  and  lost 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all." 

This  and  the  preceding  poem  mark  the 
first  fulfillment  of  the  desire  expressed 
in  the  opening  poem. 

Here  the  Introductory  Stage  ends  ; 
and  two  things,  involved  in  these  last 
two  poems,  may  be  regarded  as  its 


Il8  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

characteristic  achievement,  prepara- 
tory to  the  First  Cycle :  first,  the  de- 
sire and  resolution  to  cherish  the  in- 
tegrity of  love  in  all  time  to  come ; 
and,  secondly,  the  thought  that  such 
love  is  an  essential  endowment  of  the 
holiest  manhood,  to  be  valued  and 
cherished  though  its  object  be  forever 
removed. 


XXVIII.-LXXVII. 

Sweet  soul,  do  with  me  as  thou  wilt ; 
I  lull  a  fancy  trouble-tost 
With  '  Love 's  too  precious  to  be  lost, 

A  little  grain  shall  not  be  spilt.'  " 

In  Memoriam,  Ixv.  i. 

First  Cycle.  Thus  far  In  Memoriam  has  been 
the  monody  of  one  bereaved,  who  by 
inquiry  and  answer  has  interpreted  his 
individual  love  and  sorrow.  But  the 
thought  in  which  the  Introductory 
Stage  culminated  —  that  love  shall 
be  cherished  though  its  object  be  re- 
moved, because  in  the  continued  life 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  119 

of  love  our  truest  manhood  lives  —  is 
the  last  step  of  preparation  for  an- 
other thought,  which  is  here  first  in- 
troduced, namely,  that  he  whom  death 
removed  still  lives,  and  his  love  in  the 
unseen  world  is  as  undying  as  the  love 
left  desolate  here.  This  thought  of 
the  friend's  immortality  is  not,  as  the 
preceding,  a  simple  result  of  observa- 
tion or  experience ;  it  is  a  revealed 
truth,  to  be  accepted  by  faith.  It  is 
introduced  by  the  suggestiveness  at- 
taching to  Christmas-tide,  the  comme- 
moration of  His  birth  who  "  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light;"  and 
the  fact  that  in  its  adoption  the  poet 
leaves  the  realm  of  positive  knowledge 
and  enters  that  of  faith  is  so  important 
in  the  development  of  the  poem  that 
some  special  discussion  must  be  de- 
voted to  its  justification.  See  succeed- 
ing, poems  xxxi.  to  xxxvi. 

From  this  point,  therefore,  the  two 
friends  are  before  us  :  the  one  in  im- 
mortality, out  of  sight,  and  revealing 


I2O  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

no  trace  of  his  new  existence  ;  the 
other  believing  in  the  removed  one's 
continued  life,  and  interpreting  it  so 
far  as  he  may  by  his  own  love. 

What  the  poet  has  recognized  in 
himself  he  now  comes  by  faith  to  see 
in  his  friend.  So,  because  the  past 
companionship  has  wrought  such  un- 
dying influence  in  his  own  life,  he  rises 
by  degrees  to  believe  that  a  similar  in- 
fluence may  be  supplied  by  memory  to 
the  friend  in  another  world  ;  and  thus 
there  exists  between  the  two  souls  the 
communication  of  an  undying  effect, 
—  the  memory  and  influence,  common 
to  both,  of  a  past  love.  Because  the 
love  portrayed  in  this  cycle  has  its 
starting-point  in  a  past  companion- 
ship, and  is  recalled  and  reenforced 
by  memory,  we  may  name  this  First 
Cycle  the  Cycle  of  the  Past. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE.     XXVIII.-XXX. 

The  coming  of  the  Christmas-tide 
which  introduces  this  First  Cycle  re- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  121 

veals  two  conflicting  emotions.  The 
intent  of  the  occasion  is  gladness  on 
account  of  the  august  birth  which 
Christmas  celebrates.  The  reality  of 
this  occasion  is  sorrow  because  he 
whose  companionship  was  the  joy  of 
this  and  every  occasion  is  removed  by 
death.  The  three  poems  which  de- 
scribe this  Christmas-tide  show  suc- 
cessive stages  in  the  reluctant  yield- 
ing of  sorrow  to  joy,  until  at  last 
Christmas  hope  is  admitted,  and  be- 
comes henceforth  an  acknowledged 
influence. 

In  three  mental  moods  this  Christ- 
mas-tide is  regarded :  as  the  poet  looks 
forward  to  it,  with  sorrow  and  dread ; 
as  he  meets  it  present,  and  is  doubt- 
ful how  to  observe  it  so  as  not  to  pro- 
fane either  it  or  his  sorrow  ;  and  as  in 
calmer  mood  he  looks  back  upon  it, 
and  recalls  how  his  conflict  ended  in 
peace. 

i.  Christmas  anticipated.  The 
Christmas  bells,  proclaiming  joy,  fall 


122  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO RI AM. 

discordantly  upon  the  poet's  sorrow ; 
but  they  bring  also,  in  the  youthful 
memories  they  awaken,  a  touch  of  joy. 

xxnc.  2.  Christmas  present.  The  wonted 

Christmas  merriments  call  for  obser- 
vance now  as  at  other  times  ;  grief 
finds  them  scarcely  congenial,  but 
yields  at  last  for  form's  sake. 

xxx.  3.  Christmas  past.  In  a  retrospect 
is  related  how  conflicting  emotions 
strove  with  each  other  in  a  variety  of 
alternating  moods  ;  until  finally  calm 
ensued  in  the  thought  that  the  dead 
are  immortal,  and  that,  though  sepa- 
rated from  us,  their  love  is  unchanged. 


Thus  is  introduced  the  idea  which 
is  to  grow  and  occasion  all  the  coming 
achievements  of  thought  and  faith,  — 
namely,  that  love  does  not  die,  either 
in  this  world  or  in  another.  The  con- 
flict in  which  this  idea  was  accepted 
has  been  a  severe  one,  because  it  was 
not  merely  a  conflict  of  emotions,  but 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM. 

that  struggle  in  which  the  poet  con- 
sciously left  the  realm  of  positive 
knowledge  and  entered  the  realm  of 
faith.  Henceforth  he  is  to  walk  in 
"  the  light  that  shone  when  Hope  was 
born."  Such  an  important  step  as  the 
acceptance  of  immortality,  as  a  revealed 
truth  which  can  never  be  proved  but 
must  be  believed,  needs  a  more  ex- 
tended introduction  than  the  mere  ac- 
count of  its  beginning.  If  faith  is  to 
be  the  reigning  spirit,  it  is  desirable 
first  of  all  to  know  its  use  and  its 
grounds.  The  succeeding  six  poems 
therefore  justify  and  explain  the  poet's 
procedure,  while  they  also  introduce 
the  course  of  thought  characteristic  of 
the  cycle. 

These  six  introductory  poems  are 
two  groups  of  three  ;  of  which  groups 
the  first,  in  its  order  and  underlying 
idea,  is  more  especially  the  suggester 
of  the  present  cycle's  thought. 


124  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

ETERNAL  THINGS  AND  THE  APPRE- 
HENSION OF  THEM.    XXXL-XXXVI. 

A.    KNOWLEDGE  AND   FAITH. 

Three  poems,  "  of  the  most  solemn 
and  hymn  -  like  pieces  in  In  Memo- 
riam,"  suggested  by  the  history  of 
Lazarus'  return  from  the  dead  and  our 
Lord's  intercourse  with  the  family  at 
Bethany  (John  xi.,  xii.),  depict  our 
ideal  relation  to  eternal  things. 

1.  Regarding  the  unknowable  mys- 
tery   beyond    death.      Lazarus,    who 
could  speak  of  the  other  world  from 
knowledge,   reveals   nothing.     To  us 
here  in  this  world  the  things  beyond 
the  veil  are  not  to  be  apprehended  by 
knowledge. 

2.  Regarding  the  proper  attitude  of 
the  living  toward  eternal  things.   Mary, 
with  her  simple,  satisfied,  unquestion- 
ing faith,  illustrates  this.     In  her  con- 
sciousness  that  all   is  well,  and  that 
she  is  in  the  presence  of  the  Life  in- 
deed, she  has  such  fullness  of  present 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  12$ 

satisfaction  that  curiosity  about  un- 
seen things  finds  no  place.  "Of  im- 
mortality," says  Emerson,  "  the  soul, 
when  well  employed,  is  incurious.  It 
is  so  well,  that  it  is  sure  it  will  be  well. 
It  asks  no  questions  of  the  Supreme 
Power." 

3.  Regarding  the  relation  of  one  xxxm. 
who  knows  to  one  who  believes.  Laz- 
arus and  Mary  illustrate  two  phases 
of  Christian  life  :  those  whose  ripened 
reason  and  spiritual  insight  make 
their  view  of  unseen  things  approach 
the  character  of  knowledge ;  and  those 
whose  faith,  without  knowledge,  sup- 
ports itself  by  forms.  Each  life  has  a 
blessedness  of  its  own  ;  and  "  faith 
through  form,"  which  produces  prac- 
tical good  deeds,  is  not  to  be  despised 
even  by  the  most  advanced  in  spiritual 
things.  A  world  of  sin  makes  such 
tangible  aids  to  faith  the  desirable 
support  of  all. 

The  use  of  faith  is  thus  portrayed ; 
a  second  group  of  three  poems  now 
describes  its  grounds. 


126  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 


B.    REASON   AND    REVELATION. 

No  cold  logical  process  is  instituted 
to  prove  the  truth  of  immortality  ;  ap- 
peal is  made  rather  to  the  finer  intui- 
tions which  make  us  dare  to  enjoy  life 
and  the  world. 

1.  Life  itself  should   teach  immor- 
tality ;  for  the  unspoken  consciousness 
of   unending    existence   is  just  what 
gives    life    and    the  world    whatever 
beauty  and  worth  they  have. 

2.  Death  seems  by  its   appearance 
to  teach  the  opposite  ;  and  yet  all  the 
higher  worth  of  love,  all  that  makes 
it  nobler  than  a  satyr's  mood,  requires 
for  its  interpretation  and  integrity  that 
this   appearance   of  mortality  be   dis- 
regarded.    "  Love  cannot  tolerate  the 
thought  of  its  own  end.    '  It  announces 
itself  as  an  eternal  thing.'     The  spon- 
taneous forms  it  assumes  in  language 
put  it  outside  all  limitations  of  time. 
It  takes  us  over  into  the  field  of  abso- 
lute existence,  and  says:  Here  is  na- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  I2/ 

tive  ground  ;  I  cannot  die  ;  if  I  perish 
I  am  no  longer  love,  but  misery.  Love 
has  but  one  symbol  in  language  — 
forever;  its  logic  is,  there  is  no 
death."  1 

3.  What  our  holiest  intuitions  re-  xxxvi. 
quire  finds  its  fitting  expression  in  the 
revealed  Word  of  God ;  especially  in 
the  Word  made  flesh,  who  appeals  to 
all,  and  expresses  an  inner  idea  which 
is  too  deep-seated  for  men  unaided  to 
utter,  and  yet  which  every  one,  even 
the  most  unlettered,  may  read. 

These  introductory  groups  are  closed     XXXVH. 
by  a  chorus-poem,  in  which  the  song  is 
justified  against  reproach,  as  being  the 
spontaneous  expression  of  joy  in  re- 
vealed truth. 

SPRINGTIDE.     XXXVIIL,  XXXIX. 

The  cheer  attending  the  thought  of 
immortality  and  the  hopeful  outlook  of 

1  Quoted  from  Monger:  The  Freidom  of 'Faith,  p. 


128  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO R I  AM. 

a  new  faith  toward  the  future  is  well 
typified  by  the  season  when  nature 
awakes  from  winter  into  warmth  and 
bloom.  The  spirit  with  which  this 
Springtide  is  met,  which  we  may  re- 
gard as  the  general  spirit  of  the  cycle, 
has  already  been  manifested  in  the 
Christmas-tide.  In  each  case  we  no- 
tice that  the  cheer  comes  from  with- 
out, and  must  make  its  way  as  it  were 
by  struggle  into  a  reluctant  mood.  So 
throughout  the  cycle  :  the  bereaved 
heart  yields  but  slowly  to  the  hope  and 
promise  of  its  chosen  idea, 
xxxvm.  i.  The  season  is  joyless,  just  as  all 
the  world  is  shadowed,  but  some  sol- 
ace lives  in  the  song.  This  poem  re- 
peats mostly  the  sentiment  of  poem 
viii. ;  only  here  we  notice  an  advance, 
in  the  thought  that  the  dead,  whom 
the  song  is  to  please,  is  near  and  cog- 
nizant of  it. 

2.  Yet  this  springtide,  though  joy- 
less, affords  a  landmark  of  the  poet's 
progress  toward  vigor  and  peace  of 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 29 

mind,  in  the  fact  that  even  the  change- 
less yew-tree  (compare  poem  ii.)  feels 
the  season's  cheer;  and  Sorrow  (com- 
pare poem  iii.),  though  prophesying 
gloom  again,  acknowledges  the  pres- 
ent touch  of  hopefulness.  This  is  one 
of  the  poems  that  have  been  inserted 
in  In  Memoriam  since  the  original  ed- 
ition ;  and  as  adding  clearness  to  the 
indication  of  the  spirit  that  reigns  in 
this  stage  of  the  thought  we  see  that 
it  has  an  important  office.  See  the 
note  on  this  poem,  page  85. 


Succeeding  this  Springtide,  and  ap- 
parently compelled  by  the  reigning 
mood  evinced  therein,  a  series  of 
questions  and  doubts  are  now  raised, 
whose  answer  is  the  characteristic 
achievement  of  the  cycle.  These 
questions  fall  into  three  groups,  whose 
order  and  general  subject  have  been 
anticipated  in  the  introductory  poems 
9 


I3O  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

xxxi.  to  xxxiii. :  namely,  the  heavenly 
life  beyond  death ;  the  earthly  life  this 
side  of  death ;  and  the  relations  of  the 
two  to  each  other. 

The  answers  to  the  questions  of  the 
first  group  are  drawn  from  the 'poet's 
interpretation  of  love;  the  questions 
of  the  second  group  are  answered  by 
efforts  of  faith  ;  and  in  the  third  group 
love  and  faith  reach  their  highest  ex- 
pression. 

FIRST  GROUP. 

QUESTIONINGS   CONCERNING   THE     LIFE 
BEYOND   THE   GRAVE.     XL.-XLVIII. 

Love's  Answer. 

Four  topics  are  discussed,  —  two 
pairs  of  topics  ;  and  the  questions  in 
each  pair  suggest  themselves  as  alter- 
native to  each  other.  They  are  the 
questions  that  naturally  arise  as  we 
consider  the  life  of  that  other  world, 
in  its  relation  to  the  future  and  in  its 
relation  to  the  past. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMO RI AM.  131 

FIRST    TOPIC  :    PROGRESS   IN    ANOTHER 
WORLD. 

1.  Illustrated  in  the  life  of  a  bride,       XL. 
who    leaves   her  parental   home   and 
becomes  the   centre  of  a  new  family 
circle,  and  so  an  agent  in  the  world's 
progress.     Such  progress,  only  nobler, 

is  in  heaven.  But  the  difference 
causes  pain  :  the  bride  may  return 
from  time  to  time,  but  Arthur  is  gone 
forever. 

2.  The  thought  of  Arthur's  contin-       XLI. 
ued  progress,  with  even  his  ethereal 
energies  greatened,  in  a  strange  and 
august  state  of  being,  rouses  the  fear 

that  he  will  outstrip  the  earthly  survi- 
vor, and  so  be  always  beyond  reach. 

3.  This  fear  allayed  by  the  thought       XLII. 
of  love.     Here   on   earth  he  was  al- 
ways  far  ahead,   yet  always  helpful : 

so  there,  where  progress  is  certainly 
progress  in  love,  he  will  all  the  more 
surely  devote  himself  to  the  late-com- 
ing friend  as  guide  and  teacher. 


TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

SECOND  TOPIC  :  ALTERNATIVE,  WHETH- 
ER, INSTEAD  OF  BEING  CONSCIOUS, 
AND  PROGRESSING  TO  EVER  HIGHER 
ENERGIES,  THE  IMMORTAL  SOUL  MAY 
SLEEP  UNTIL  THE  MORNING  OF  THE 
RESURRECTION. 

The  answer  neither  affirms  nor  de- 
nies; it  is  love's  answer,  making  the 
most  of  the  alternative.  If  death  is 
really  sleep,  there  will  be  a  waking; 
so  all  souls  repose  together,  like 
folded  flowers,  and  love  loses  noth- 
ing by  it. 

THIRD    TOPIC:     MEMORY    IN    ANOTHER 
WORLD. 

i.  Considerations  that  make  against 
memory  in  another  world.  Our  for- 
getfulness  of  infancy  and  preexistence 
(if  preexistence  be  a  fact),  which  is 
only  emphasized  by  seeming  flashes 
of  a  preexistent  consciousness,  sug- 
gests a  similar  relation  of  the  heavenly 
state  to  the  earthly.  If  such  be  the 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  133 

fact,  love  will  make  the  most  of  it, 
and  beseeches  the  immortal  friend  to 
use  the  superior  wisdom  of  celestial 
beings,  and  resolve  any  dreamy  idea 
of  earth  that  may  rise. 

2.  Considerations    that    make    for      XLV. 
memory  in  another  world.     The  grand 
result  of  this  earthly  life,  as  it  advances 
from  infancy  to  maturity,  is  the  devel- 
opment of  self-conscious  personality, 

and  with  it  the  possibility  of  memory. 
Unless  we  suppose  all  this  life's  high- 
est achievement  is  lost,  this  self-con- 
scious personality  and  memory  con- 
tinue in  heaven. 

3.  The  nature  of  memory  in  another      XLVI. 
world.     The  gradual  dimming  of  mem- 
ory here  is  a  necessity  in  the  formation 

of  character  ;  but  there,  where  charac- 
ter is  perfected,  memory  takes  in  the 
whole  life  perfectly  and  at  once.  The 
lifetime  which  Arthur  remembers  may 
perhaps  show  those  five  years  of 
friendship  as  its  richest  period,  lend- 
ing radiance  to  all  the  rest. 


134  TENNYSON'  'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

FOURTH  TOPIC  :  ALTERNATIVE,  WHETH- 
ER, INSTEAD  OF  REMEMBERING,  THE 
IMMORTAL  SOUL  MAY  LOSE  THE 
WHOLE  PERSONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 
AND  SEPARATE  MIND  NECESSARY  TO 
MEMORY,  AND  BE  AT  LAST  ABSORBED 
INTO  THE  GENERAL  SOUL. 

XLVII.  Love  protests  against  the  idea  of 
such  vague  and  undefined  existence 
as  fatal  to  her  integrity.  Yet  though 
it  were  so,  Love  will  make  the  most 
of  the  alternative,  and  put  to  the  best 
use  the  last  moment  before  dissolu- 
tion. 


This  group  is  concluded  by  a  chorus- 
poem,  which  avers  that  the  office  of 
the  song  is  not  to  give  logically  con- 
clusive answers,  but  Love's  answer, 
making  doubts  yield  her  service. 


From  the  consideration  of  the  im- 
mortal life  that  has  reached  its  goal 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  135 

the  poet  now  turns  his  thought,  in  a 
second  group  of  topics,  to  the  human 
life  striving  here  on  earth  toward  its 
goal,  or  at  least,  whether  it  strive  or 
not,  shaping  itself  an  eternal  destiny. 
This  group,  as  it  has  to  do  not  with 
the  life  made  perfect  in  heaven,  but 
with  the  imperfect  and  sinful  life  of 
earth,  is  more  charged  with  feeling 
than  the  other ;  and  as  the  character 
of  its  subject  causes  more  doubt,  the 
questions  are  answered  by  strong  ef- 
forts of  faith  rather  than  by  simple 
interpretations  of  love. 


SECOND  GROUP. 

QUESTIONINGS  AND  DOUBTS  CONCERN- 
ING HUMAN  LIFE  HERE  ON  EARTH: 
ITS  CHARACTER  AND  DESTINY.  XLIX.- 
LIX. 

Faith's  Answer. 

Introduced  by  a  chorus-poem,  which, 
reminding  us  that  in  spite  of  all  hope- 


136  TENNYSOWS  IN  MEMORTAM. 

ful  answers  the  sorrow  remains  at  the 
deep  bases  of  life,  strikes  the  key-note 
of  the  coming  discussion. 

As  in  the  foregoing  group,  four 
topics  are  discussed.  Their  correla- 
tion is  as  follows.  The  four  topics  are 
two  pairs.  The  first  pair  refers  to  the 
devout  human  life,  the  second  to  the 
undevout.  The  first  member  of  each 
pair  refers  more  especially  to  the 
course  of  life,  the  second  to  the  goal. 

FIRST  TOPIC  :  OUR  DEVOUT  HUMAN 
LIFE,  AS  GOD  AND  THE  IMMORTALS 
SEE  IT. 

i-  i.  Suggested  by  the  wish  that  the 

immortal  friend  were  near,  in  all  spir- 
itual needs  of  life,  so  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  nearness  might  be  a 
solace. 

u-  2.  But  if  the  dead  are  near  they  can 

see  all  our  unworthiness.  To  which 
thought  Faith  answers  that  they  see  as 
God  sees,  and  make  gracious  allow- 
ance. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  137 

SECOND  TOPIC  :  OUR  PURSUIT  OF  A 
HIGH  IDEAL,  AND  OUR  DESTINY  AS 
COMPARED  WITH  IT. 

The  poet's  ideal  —  to  answer  Ar-  ui. 
thur's  love  worthily  —  seems  unattain- 
able. But  Faith  replies  that  the  spirit 
of  true  love  is  not  offended  at  human 
frailty,  but  takes  the  faithful  working 
toward  the  ideal  as  the  real  worth  in  a 
world  of  sin. 

THIRD     TOPIC  :      OUTLIVED      SIN     AS     A 
STRENGTHENER   OF   CHARACTER. 

Many  a  one  seems  stronger  and  ""• 
richer  in  character  by  reason  of  ear- 
lier waywardness  outlived.  But  while 
this  may  be  a  fact,  we  are  not  to  sin 
for  the  sake  of  outliving  it  to  greater 
strength,  but  to  hold  fast  the  good. 

FOURTH  TOPIC  :  WHETHER  EVERY  IM- 
PERFECT LIFE  SHALL  AT  LAST  REACH 
ITS  GOAL. 

i.  Sin  proceeds  in  so  many  cases       uv- 


138  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMO RI AM. 

from  causes  beyond  the  sinner's  con- 
trol ;  shall,  then,  inevitable  sins  and 
evils  make  any  life  eternally  vain  ?  In 
answer,  Faith,  unable  to  explain,  can 
only  assert  her  trust  that  every  life 
shall  at  some  far  distant  time  reach 
the  goal  it  was  made  for. 
LV.  2.  The  wish  that  no  life  may  fail  is 

godlike  ;  but  Nature  seems  to  give  the 
lie  to  this  wish,  and  to  be  at  strife  with 
divine  Love.  To  which  Faith,  more 
agitated,  cannot  reply,  but  flees  to  that 
Love  who  is  Lord  of  all,  and  trusts  to 
a  hope  larger  than  Nature. 
LVI.  3.  But  Nature  suggests  yet  more 

perplexing  thoughts,  for,  perfectly  in- 
different to  all,  she  seems  to  recognize 
no  sacredness  in  life.  To  which  Faith 
answers  that  if  life  is  nothing  higher 
than  Nature  teaches,  then  man,  her 
highest  work,  is  a  splendid  failure. 
Unable  to  rest  in  such  a  conclusion, 
and  yet  unable  to  explain,  Faith  can 
only  refer  the  question  to  the  world 
behind  the  veil. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  139 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  an  ear- 
lier work  this  same  question  of  man's 
destiny  has  presented  itself  to  the  poet, 
and  in  the  same  manner  has  been  left 
unanswered.  At  the  close  of  "The 
Vision  of  Sin,"  where  discussion  has 
been  made  concerning  sin's  ravages, 
whether  avenged  by  sense,  or  also  dis- 
integrating the  spirit,  the  lines  oc- 
cur :  — 

"  At  last  I  heard  a  voice  upon  the  slope 
Cry  to  the  summit, '  Is  there  any  hope  ? ' 
To  which  an  answer  peal'd  from  that  high  land, 
Bat  in  a  tongue  no  man  could  understand ; 
And  on  the  glimmering  limit  far  withdrawn 
God  made  Himself  an  awful  rose  of  dawn." 

In  the  poem  under  discussion,  however, 
the  thought  is  greatly  ripened  under 
the  agency  of  Faith.  From  all  deepest 
doubts  suggested  by  Nature  she  rises, 
and  flees  from  Nature  to  God,  in  whose 
hands  she  tremblingly  leaves  the  an- 
swer. 

The  agitated  feeling  which  has  ac- 
companied the  questions  of  this  group 


I4O  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

here  reaches  its  culmination,  and  the 
next  three  poems  break  off  the  course 
of  thought  abruptly,  and  give  way  to 
the  emotion  with  which  the  foregoing 
struggle  has  overcharged  the  poet's 
soul.  Yet  these  three  chorus-poems 
effect  an  important  transition,  being 
indeed  the  turning-point  of  the  poem ; 
for  in  them  the  poet  escapes  from  the 
evil  dreams  of  Nature  to  faith  in  a 
Holy  One,  higher  than  .Nature. 
Lvn  i.  "  Peace ;  come  away."  Agitated 

»  by  the  feeling  that  his  work  will  fail, 
the  poet  turns  to  bid  farewell ;  and  yet 
his  adieus  refuse  to  be  final.  Compare 
cxxiii.  3. 

2.    "  Abide   a  little  longer  here." 

LVIII. 

Neither  the  thought  nor  the  song  can 
rest  in  such  a  cheerless,  hopeless  end ; 
to  cease  at  this  stage  would  be  fruit- 
less labor. 

LIX.  3-  "  O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  live  with 

me."  At  the  beginning,  in  poem  iii., 
Sorrow  could  see  in  Nature  only  the 
reflection  of  herself ;  and  the  hopeless- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  14! 

ness  she  suggested  was  acknowledged 
to  be  from  a  "  lying  lip."  In  poem 
xxxix.,  where  springtide  is  nature's 
illustration  of  new  life,  Sorrow  must 
acknowledge  the  present  cheer;  but 
inasmuch  as  she  prophesies  gloom 
again  her  lip  is  yet  a  "  lying "  one ;  ' 
she  cannot  be  trusted.  But  now  that 
Sorrow  has  fled  from  Nature  to  God, 
and  in  spite  of  Nature's  evil  dreams 
can  leave  the  problem  of  human  des- 
tiny to  Him,  she  may  be  taken  and 
cherished  as  a  trustworthy  guide.  She  • 
is  yet  to  be  the  reigning  element  in 
the  song,  but  she  is  to  lead  to  hope. 
This  is  one  of  the  poems  added  since 
the  original  edition,  and  together  with 
poems  iii.  and  xxxix.  forms  a  beauti- 
fully wrought  picture  within  the  greater 
thought  of  the  poem.  See  note  on 
this  poem,  page  84. 


Two  groups  of  questions  have  been 
given  :  the  first,  concerning  the  heav- 
enly life,  answered  by  successive  in- 


142  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM, 

terpretations  of  love  ;  the  second,  con- 
cerning the  character  and  destiny  of 
the  earthly,  answered  by  efforts  of 
faith.  The  third  group  of  topics  now 
succeeds,  and  in  the  discussion  of 
them  both  love  and  faith  reach  their 
highest  expression. 

THIRD  GROUP. 

QUESTIONINGS  AND  FEARS  CONCERN- 
ING THE  POSSIBLE  RELATION  OF  THE 
HEAVENLY  LIFE  TO  THE  EARTHLY. 
LX.-LXV. 

Love  and  FaitWs  Noblest  Expression. 

Two  souls  are  before  us,  who  have 
loved  each  other.  The  love  of  the 
earthly  soul  is  yet  undiminished ;  how 
fares  it  with  the  heavenly  ? 

A  single  alternative  will  express  the 
possible  relation  of  the  immortal  soul 
to  past  companionship  :  he  may  wish 
to  forget  his  past  love,  or  he  may 
remember  it  with  pleasure.  Three 
poems  give  expression  to  each  mem- 
ber of  this  alternative ;  and  in  each 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  143 

group  of  three,  the  first  poem  ap- 
proaches the  thought  from  its  earthly 
side,  the  second  from  its  heavenly, 
and  the  third  draws  the  conclusion. 

FIRST  MEMBER:  SUGGESTION  OF  THE 
BAD  ALTERNATIVE.  IN  HIS  HIGHER 
STATE  THE  IMMORTAL  MAY  WISH  TO 
FORGET  HIS  EARTHLY  LOVE. 

1.  The  earthly  survivor  is  as  a  sim-       LX. 
pie  girl  who  loves  one  far  above  her  in 
rank,  —  one  whose  larger  life  she  can 
follow,  not  in  understanding,  but  only 

in  love. 

2.  The  immortal  one  may  look  back       LXI- 
from  his  august  companionships,  and 

be  grieved  at  the  dwarfed  life  and  love 
that  here  on  earth  is  longing  for  his 
regard ;  and  yet  this  love  is  as  true  as 
that  of  the  greatest. 

3.  Love's  conclusion.     If  this   sim-    -   LXH. 
pie  earthly  affection  shames  its  object, 
Love  consents  in  full  self-abnegation 

to  sacrifice  her  claim  to  regard.  How 
truly  this  sacrifice  is  the  noblest  ex- 


144  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

pression  of  love  we  see  when  we  re- 
flect that  this  is  the  surrender  of  that 
highest  blessing  which  the  poem  has 
all  along  sought. 

SECOND  MEMBER:  SUGGESTION  OF  THE 
GOOD  ALTERNATIVE.  IN  HIS  HIGHER 
STATE  THE  IMMORTAL  MAY  REMEM- 
BER HIS  EARTHLY  LOVE  WITH  PLEAS- 
URE. 

1.  The   earthly  survivor  can  love 
lower    beings,   and  yet    love   heaven 
none   the   less.      It   is   therefore   not 
necessarily  the  case  that  greater  loves 
in  heaven  preclude  the  simpler  loves 
of  earth. 

2.  The  immortal  one  may  be  as  one 
who  has  risen  from  a  humble  lot  to  the 
highest  distinction   in  the  state,  who 
remembers    his    former    home     and 
friends  with  special  fondness. 

3.  Faith's  conclusion.     Love  is  too 
precious  to  be  lost ;  it  works  its  effect 
yonder  as  here,  and  the  two  friends 
though  separated  partake  of  the  same 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  145 

hallowed  remembrance.  This  thought 
may  be  regarded  as  the  culminating 
achievement  of  faith  in  this  cycle. 

At  the  end  of  this  third  group  a 
series  of  poems  now  portrays  the 
calmer  and  more  healthful  mood 
reached  by  the  poet  in  his  consider- 
ation of  eternal  things.  These  po- 
ems contrast  strikingly  with  the  first 
portrayal  of  unquiet  grief,  in  poems 


1.  In  the  first  mood  of  grief,  poem 
ii.,  the  mind  was  like  the  changeless 
yew-tree,  a  perpetual  guardian  of   the 
dead.     Now  the  bereaved  has  become 
spontaneously  cheerful  with   all,   and 
takes  interest  in  affairs  other  than  his 
own.     Yet  this  cheerfulness  is  after  all 
like  that  of  the  blind  man,  who  has  a 
dark  world  of  his  own,  where  he  lives 
apart  from  others. 

2.  In  the  first  mood  of  grief,  poem 
iii.,  the  thought  of  the  dead  was  always 
a  disquieting  influence,  depriving  all 

10 


146  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

nature  of  attractiveness.  Now  the 
bereaved  can  think  with  complacency 
even  of  the  grave  and  the  memorials 
of  the  departed  life. 

3.  In  the  first  mood  of  grief,  poem 
iv.,  clouds  of  nameless  sorrow  dark- 
ened the  bereaved  one's  dreams. 
Now  the  returned  calmness  makes  his 
dreams  natural  and  serene  again.  The 
object  of  his  consciousness,  no  longer 
a  tyrannical  disturbance  in  all  his 
waking  thoughts,  begins  to  enter  his 
dreams  restfully  and  spontaneously. 
Four  poems  trace  how  these  dreams 
lose  their  sorrow. 

LXVIH.  a.  The  dead  is  dreamed  of  as  living 
but  with  a  nameless  trouble  in  his  face, 
making  him  not  just  the  man  he  was ; 
which  trouble  is  no  doubt  transferred 
from  the  sleeper's  unquiet  brain. 

ucix.  b.  In  a  troubled  dream,  in  which 
the  dreamer  wanders  forth  through  a 
dreary  land  where  nature  gives  no 
more  hope  of  spring,  and  crowns  him- 
self with  thorns,  an  angel  meets  him 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  147 

with  comforting  words  and  touches  the 
crown  into  leaf. 

t.  The  dreamer  tries  in  vain,  in  the       LXX. 
midst  of  grotesque  shapes,  to  see  Ar- 
thur's features  aright ;  until  at  last  the 
vision  comes  in  some  way  beyond  his 
will. 

d.  Finally,  a  sweet  experience  of  LMO. 
the  past  comes  to  live  naturally  in 
the  dreams  of  the  present ;  and  the 
dreamer's  pleasure  in  the  past  is  gen- 
uine and  complete,  with  the  single 
exception  of  a  vague  "  blindfold  sense 
of  wrong,"  which  he  would  gladly  have 
cleared  away. 

FIRST    ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE 
DEATH.       LXXII. 

This  day,  with  its  revival  of  a  bitter 
memory,  breaks  in  like  a  discord  on 
the  poet's  growing  peace  of  mind, 
bringing  back  vividly  that  dread  hour, 

"When  the  dark  hand  struck  down  thro'  time, 
And  cancell'd  nature's  best," 

and  seeming  at  first  thought  to  check 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

and  disturb  all  that  faith  has  achieved. 
We  have  noticed  however,  in  the  last 
poem,  that  the  poet's  pleasure  in  the 
memory  of  the  past  failed  in  one  point 
of  completeness  :  there  remains  a 
"blindfold  sense  of  wrong."  What 
that  wrong  is  the  present  anniversary 
suggests  ;  and  being  suggested  it  is 
met  and  disposed  of  satisfactorily. 

There  is  suggested  here,  naturally, 
the  name  and  fame  that  would  have 
been  Arthur's  had  the  day  not  been 
darkened  by  his  death.  The  loss  of 
that  fame  to  himself  and  to  the  world 
is  the  "wrong"  which  still  disturbs 
the  poet's  sense  of  justice  in  his  re- 
moval. Some  thoughts  regarding  the 
fame  thus  lost,  with  their  comforting 
offset,  are  here  introduced. 

In  accordance  with  the  general  pro- 
cedure of  the  present  cycle,  the 
thought  of  fame  is  first  considered 
with  regard  to  the  dead,  and  then  with 
regard  to  the  living. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  149 


A.  THE    FAME   WHICH    THE   DEAD   LOST 

HERE   AND    GAINS   YONDER. 

1.  By  reason  of  his  untimely  death 
the  friend  and  the  world  lost  his  fame  ; 
but  still   his   immortal  soul   contains 
the  same  powers,  glorified  rather  than 
impaired. 

2.  His   evident    kindred  with    the 
great  ones  of  history  suggests  more 
than  can  well  be  said. 

3.  Though  the  greatness  of  the  dead 
missed  proper  recognition  here,  it  is 
acknowledged   and    reaches    its   true 
glory  yonder. 

B.  THE   MORE  THAN  FAME  THAT    IS  YET 

THE   SOLACE   OF    THE   LIVING. 

i.  The  poet  transports  himself  in 
fancy  to  an  ideal  point  whence  he  may 
see  human  fame  as  Heaven  sees  it, 
and  compares  his  own  songs,  so  soon 
to  die,  with  that  which  really  deserves 
fame.  By  the  side  of  what  Heaven 
accounts  great  how  insignificant  ap- 
pear our  petty  standards  of  merit. 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

2.  These  songs  will  die  ;  nor  do 
they  count  themselves  lasting.  But 
their  use  in  the  present  is  their  suffi- 
cient justification.  To  sing  of  his  sor- 
row and  his  love  is  sweeter  to  the  poet 
than  fame, — is  its  own  reward. 

With  this  poem  the  chorus -poems 
cease.  Having  come  to  find  its  re- 
ward in  itself,  the  song  is  so  much 
more  than  the  mere  subserver  of  a 
"  use  "  that  no  more  mention  of  its 
practical  office  is  needed  ;  and  indeed 
with  the  yielding  of  sorrow  to  calm- 
ness its  office  is  no  more  mechanical, 
as  at  first,  but  the  unbidden  utterance 
of  spiritual  achievements.  See  note 
on  the  chorus-poems,  page  71. 

Thus  is  met  and  vanquished  that 
last  hindrance  to  the  poet's  com- 
placency in  his  memories  of  the  past, 
and  he  is  ready  to  enter  a  new  era  of 
thought. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  151 

&eeont»  CpcU. 
LXXVIII.  —  cm. 

M  Were  it  conceivable  that  the  soul  in  one  state  should 
co-exist  with  the  soul  in  another,  how  impetuous  would 
be  that  desire  of  reunion,  which  even  the  awful  laws  of 
time  cannot  entirely  forbid!  .  .  .  In  her  anxiety  to  break 
down  all  obstacles,  and  to  amalgamate  two  portions  of 
her  divided  substance,  she  will  hasten  to  blend  emotions 
and  desires  with  those  apparent  in  the  kindred  spirit."— 
A.  H.  HALLAM'S  Remains. 

In  the  preceding  cycle  the  poet  has  second 
reached  calmness   in   the  thought  of   ' 
that  holy  love  which  is  not  impaired 
by  separation,  but  continues,  as  in  this 
world,  so  in  the  unseen  world,  a  hal- 
lowed memory,  rich  in  sweet  influence. 
Such  a  blessing  has  been  drawn  by 
faith  from   the   contemplation  of   the 
past. 

There  follows  now  the  Cycle  of  the 
Present;  which  I  so  denominate  be- 
cause the  thought  has  to  do  with 
the  present  aspect  of  the  poet's  love 
for  the  dead,  and  of  the  immortal 
one's  relation  to  him.  This  thought 


152  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

of  the  present  develops  itself  in  two 
directions.  On  the  one  hand,  the  poet 
betrays  a  longing  for  some  bond  be- 
tween him  and  the  immortal  more  dis- 
tinctively present  than  the  bond  of  a 
common  memory,  —  a  longing,  in  fact, 
for  some  real  present  communion  in 
spirit,  in  which  he  may  know  that  the 
friend  is  near.  Toward  this  consum- 
mation the  thought  advances,  not  with- 
out a  certain  cautious  tone,  as  if  the 
poet  were  conscious  that  in  cherishing 
such  a  venturous  desire  he  is  treading 
upon  precarious  ground.  On  the  other 
hand,  true  communion  in  spirit  with  the 
immortal  certainly  demands  nothing 
short  of  compliance  with  his  example 
and  advice  were  he  living ;  and  the 
poet  knows  he  would  have  cherished 
living  sympathy  and  friendship  with 
the  world  around  him.  Besides,  open- 
ing of  the  heart  toward  the  unseen 
world  is  possible  only  by  opening  the 
heart  correspondingly  toward  this 
world.  So  the  poet  advances  to- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  153 

ward  his  desire  of  communion  there 
by  choosing  a  new  friendship  here. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE.     LXXVIII. 

The  Christmas  which  introduces  this  LXXVIH. 
Second  Cycle  is  an  occasion  charac- 
terized by  calmness.  The  lapse  of 
time  has  brought  a  change  in  the  spirit 
of  its  observance,  in  this  respect,  that 
the  merriments  and  pleasures  peculiar 
to  Christmas  are  accepted  and  enjoyed 
no  longer  under  querulous  protest  but 
for  their  own  sake.  At  the  same  time, 
"  the  quiet  sense  of  something  lost " 
is  a  reminder  that  the  occasion  is  not 
what  it  was  before  bereavement. 


As  the  thought  distinctive  of  the 
First  Cycle  was  prefaced  by  a  group 
of  poems  that  suggested  it  first  in  out- 
line, so  in  this  cycle,  in  the  four  poems 
succeeding.  What  the  thought  of  this 
cycle  is  has  already  been  intimated. 
It  is  in  its  deepest  a  reverent  consid- 


154  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

eration  of  the  question,  what  may  be 
held  as  to  present  spiritual  intercourse 
with  the  immortal  dead,  and  what  are 
the  prerequisites  on  the  part  of  the 
living.  Such  a  question  must  be  ap- 
proached cautiously,  beset  as  it  has 
been  with  grotesque  abuses.  The  an- 
swer may  or  may  not  be  satisfactory ; 
but  it  must  hold  as  far  as  it  goes. 
Nor  is  the  inquiry  such  as  will  appeal 
kindly  to  all  minds,  being  in  no  small 
degree  mystical  ;  it  must,  therefore, 
leave  a  residuum  of  practical  truth 
such  as  no  mind  can  well  take  excep- 
tion to.  Such  a  consciousness  as  this 
seems  to  betray  itself  here,  as  between 
the  lines  ;  and  any  incursions  made 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  unseen  keep 
up  direct  communication  with  the  prac- 
tical. 

The  idea  takes  its  starting-point  in 
the  thought  of  the  divided  nature  of 
which  the  poet  is  conscious  and  the 
complement  of  which  he  feels  perpet- 
ually the  need.  Corresponding  to  the 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  155 

later  expanded  thought,  the  outline 
divides  itself  into  the  two  related 
thoughts  which  together  form  the  char- 
acteristic idea  of  the  cycle. 

THE    DIVIDED    NATURE    AND    ITS 
COMPLEMENT.      LXXIX.-LXXXII. 

A.    THE     DIVIDED    NATURE     IS   TO    SEEK 
PEACE   IN    ITS    PRESENT   STATE. 

1.  The  poet's   passionate  assertion 
in  the  midst  of  his  sorrow  (ix.  5),  that 
Arthur  was  more  than   a  brother  to 
him,  was  no  mere  hasty  ejaculation, 
nor  any  reflection  on  his  fraternal  re- 
lations, but  a  fact  which  he  can  reas- 
sert with  all   calmness.      Arthur  was 
more  than  a  brother  by  the  very  fact 
of  being  unlike,  and  so  from  his  differ- 
ence supplying  his  companion's  lack. 

2.  But  if  he  supplied  my  lack,  then 
his  example,  so  far  as  I  may  interpret 
it,  should  still  live  in  me ;  and  it  shall. 
If  places  were  changed  and   he   the 
mourner,  I  know  that  he  would  turn 
his  sorrow  into  gain,  by  being  stayed 


156  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

in  peace  with  God  and  man.  So  let  me 
do,  and  thus  honor  his  influence. 

B.  THE  DIVIDED  NATURE'S  REAL  COM- 
PLEMENT, WHICH  NO  NEW  RELATION 
CAN  REPLACE,  REMAINS  AS  NEEDFUL 
AS  EVER. 

The  peace  with  God  and  man, 
which  the  dead  would  have  exempli- 
fied, is  only  partly  a  compensation. 
What  is  really  desired  is  the  friend's 
actual  nearness,  and  the  consciousness 
of  it. 

1.  The  desire  hinted  and  its  fulfill- 
ment prepared  for.     If  the  survivor's 
love   was  immature  at    the    time    of 
Arthur's    death,   and   so    capable   of 
more,  it  was  yet  ripened  by  bereave- 
ment ;  and  so  the  two  may  yet  love 
equally  and  satisfactorily. 

2.  The    desire    plainly    expressed. 
It  is  communion,  actual  and  present, 
that  is  after  all  missed  and  wanted. 
No  certitude  of  Arthur's  blessedness 
can  make  that  want  as  if  it  were  not. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  157 

NEW   YEAR.       LXXXIII. 

As  in  the  preceding  cycle  Springtide 
added  to  the  thought  of  immortality 
the  suggestiveness  of  a  new  awaking 
season,  so  in  this  broader  field  of 
thought  New  Year  heralds  a  new 
round  of  seasons.  The  spirit  of  the 
thought  too  has  changed,  —  has  be- 
come more  wholesome  and  free. 
Frozen  in  the  past  sorrow  as  the  mind 
was  in  the  preceding  cycle,  the  spring- 
tide must  thrust  its  cheer  from  with- 
out on  a  reluctant  mood ;  but  here  the 
New  Year  illustrates  the  greater  health 
of  spirit,  in  that  now  the  mood  an- 
swers to  the  promise  of  the  season, 
and  goes  forth  congenially  to  meet  it. 
The  same  spirit  has  also  been  illus- 
trated at  Christmas-tide,  in  the  pleas- 
ure taken  in  its  observances  for  their 
own  sake. 

The  course  of  thought  distinctive  of 
the  Cycle  of  the  Present,  already  sug- 


158  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

gested  in  outline,  now  follows.  Its 
twofold  aspect,  as  involved  in  its 
ground  idea  that  it  is  only  the  open- 
ing of  the  heart  toward  earthly  rela- 
tionships that  makes  it  open  also  to- 
ward heaven,  suggests  a  double  series 
of  topics,  in  the  first  part  of  which 
the  earthly  blessing  is  secured,  and  in 
the  second  the  heavenly. 

FIRST  GROUP. 

THE  BEREAVED  FINDS  PEACE  WITH  ALL. 
LXXXIV.-LXXXIX. 

In  the  introductory  poems,  Ixxix., 
Ixxx.,  the  poet  has  recognized  the  want 
in  his  nature  left  by  bereavement,  and 
has  committed  himself  to  the  course 
that  Arthur  would  have  taken  had 
he  lived.  The  succeeding  poems  now 
carry  this  idea  out  into  practice. 

The  poems  of  this  group  subdivide 
themselves  into  two  groups,  in  the  first 
of  which  the  bereaved  commits  himself 
to  his  idea,  and  in  the  second  finds 
peace  therein. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 59 

A.   THE     BEREAVED     COMMITS     HIMSELF 
TO   A   NEW   FRIENDSHIP. 

1.  The  poet  contemplates  what  their     LXXXIV. 
friendship  would  have  become  had  Ar- 
thur lived  and  become  his  brother,  as 

was  intended.  The  two  are  viewed  as 
walking  down  to  old  age  together  in 
congenial  pursuits,  and  at  the  end  as 
departing  from  earth  together  and  be- 
ing received  in  heaven  as  one  soul. 
The  contemplation  comes  near  waking 
the  old  sadness  again,  as  it  makes  so 
painfully  apparent  the  poet's  perpetual 
want,  of  present  requited  friendship. 

2.  At  the  solicitation  of  one  who,  as      LXXXV. 
would  appear  from  a  comparison  of 
stanza  2  with  Epilogue,  stanza  i,  is 
destined  to  sustain  the  same  relation 

to  the  poet  that  Arthur  would  have 
held,  and  by  that  fact  becomes  a  can- 
didate for  Arthur's  place  in  the  poet's 
affection,  the  poet  reviews  the  course 
of  his  love  and  bereavement  and  quest 
of  reunion,  especially,  as  it  would 
seem,  to  answer  the  question, 


I6O  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

"Whether  love  for  him  have  drain'd 
My  capabilities  of  love." 

He  recounts  how  when  his  sorrow  fell 
he  was  kept  from  being  unmanned  by 
taking  Arthur's  life  as  an  influence 
in  all  daily  action,  and  how  also  his 
study  of  spiritual  problems  has  been 
of  practical  good  in  diffusing  the  shock 
of  grief ;  until,  now  that  the  friendship 
of  which  he  is  the  "  divided  half "  has 
reached  a  permanence  beyond  fear  of 
the  ravages  of  time,  he  finds  behind 
his  grief  a  reserve  of  strength  impel- 
ling and  enabling  him  to  seek  what 
Arthur's  pure  spirit  seems  to  bid,  a 
friendship  in  the  present,  which  in  the 
healthful  action  of  soul  on  soul  may 
preserve  his  spiritual  integrity.  His 
heart  therefore  seeks  the  new  friend- 
ship, which  he  protests  may  be  as  true, 
if  not  so  fresh,  as  the  other. 

3-  This  conclusion  is  ratified  by  a 
song,  in  which  the  balmiest  influences 
of  Nature  are  called  upon  to  enter  his 
being  and  impart  peace. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  l6l 

B.  THE  BEREAVED  FINDS  PEACE,  EVEN 
IN  THOSE  SCENES  AND  ASSOCIATIONS 
WHICH  MOST  VIVIDLY  RECALL  HIS 
SORROW. 

1.  He   revisits   his   old  Cambridge 
halls,  and  finds  the   revived  memory 
of  student  days  and  companionships 
productive  not  of  sorrow,  but  in  some 
degree  of  the  old   enthusiasm  and  in- 
terest. 

2.  In  the  nightingale's  song,  which 
is  popularly  regarded  as  commingling 
joy  and  woe,  and  so  also  in  his  own, 
he  cannot  but  find  joy  predominant, 
in  spite  of  his  prelude  of  woe. 

3.  The  past  is  lived  over  again,  and 
all  its  congenial  occupations  with  Ar- 
thur, in  the  scenes  of  the  former  sum- 
mer retreat.     How  fully  peace  is  re- 
stored  is  well    indicated   by  compar- 
ing the  appearance  of  Nature  in  this 
poem  with  such  poems  as  viii.,  xxiii., 

xxxviii. 

ii 


1 62  TENNYSOWS  IN  MEMORIAM. 

SECOND   GROUP. 

IN  HIS  PEACE  WITH  ALL  THE  BEREAVED 
FINDS  COMMUNION  IN  SPIRIT  WITH 
THE  DEAD.  XC.-XCV. 

In  the  introductory  poems,  Ixxxi., 
Ixxxii.,  the  thought  of  this  group  is 
betrayed,  as  if  reluctantly,  between  the 
lines,  and  then  plainly  intimated,  but 
only  negatively.  The  hint  is  now  car- 
ried out  to  realization. 

This  group,  like  the  foregoing,  sub- 
divides itself  into  two  groups,  in  the 
first  of  which  the  poet  defines  his  idea, 
and  in  the  second  realizes  it. 

A.  THE  BEREAVED  DEFINES  HIS  THOUGHT 
AND   COMMITS    HIMSELF   TO    IT. 

xc.  i.    The  greatest  obstacle   to   such 

present  communion  in  spirit  with  the 
dead  is  disposed  of,  —  namely,  the  ob- 
stacle which  a  supposed  change  in  the 
bereaved,  caused  by  years  of  separa- 
tion, would  make,  to  destroy  congen- 
iality when  the  friends  meet  again. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  163 

The  poet's  desire  exists  unimpaired 
by  any  change  of  time  or  association. 
Notice  how  closely  this  poem  corre- 
sponds in  sentiment  with  its  introduc- 
tory poem,  Ixxxi. 

2.  The  spirit  of  the  departed  is  in-      xo. 
voked  to  come  crowned  with  the  glory 

of  the  seasons  :  in  spring,  as  he  was 
in  the  time  of  earthly  promise  ;  in  sum- 
mer, as  he  is  in  his  matured  after 
form. 

3.  Yet  this  longing  for  communion       xai. 
with  the  dead  is  no  crude  desire  to  see 

him  in  vision.  The  fulfillment  of  such 
a  desire  could  not  but  be  both  unsat- 
isfactory and  uncertain. 

4.  No  visual  shade  may  come,  but      xcm. 
the  spirit  himself,  apprehended  by  spir- 
itual perception,  outside  of  and  above 

the  organism  of  sense.  Surely  such 
communion  may  be  wished  for. 

5.  The  preparation  necessary  to  re-      xciv. 
ceive  such  a  guest :  purity  of  heart, 
soundness  of  intellect,  holiness  of  af- 
fection,  peace  with  all,  —  the  whole 


164  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

inner  nature  free  from  discord  and 
doubt.  To  such  preparation  the  poet 
has  already  committed  himself.  See 
poem  Ixxx. 

B.  THE  DESIRE  OF  THE  BEREAVED  IS 
ACTUALLY  REALIZED. 

xcv.  In  a  perfectly  calm  summer  evening 

the  scene  is  such  as  to  combine  in  one 
the  foregoing  thoughts. 

1.  The   present   new   friendship   is 
represented  in  the  intercourse  of  the 
circle  who  have  been  together  all  the 
evening,  and  have   at  last  separated 
for  the  night. 

2.  After  the  others  are  gone  a  hun- 
ger for  the  old  companionship  seizes 
the  poet's  heart.     The  letters  of  the 
dead,  which  he  reads,  bring  the  past 
vividly  to  mind,  and  he  thinks  over 
the  thoughts  which  had  once  been  so 
helpful  to  both ;  until  all  at  once  he 
seems  to  be  caught  up  into  living  mys- 
tic communion  with  Arthur,  and  with 
him  to  experience  unspeakable  things. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 65 

At  last,  as  the  morning  begins  to  rise, 
the  trance  vanishes. 


The  poet's  desire,  so  cautiously  ex- 
pressed, has  been  realized  in  an  hour 
of  mysterious  communion  with  the  im- 
mortal friend.  But  the  communion 
was  only  for  a  time ;  it  "  was  cancell'd, 
stricken  thro'  with  doubt."  What  re- 
mains as  its  permanent  sequence,  and 
wherein  does  the  present  attainment 
fail  of  completeness  ?  The  answer  to 
such  a  question  seems  to  be  the  ob- 
ject of  the  succeeding  three  poems. 

i.  The  ministry  of  doubt.  Appar- 
ently in  allusion  to  the  fact  that  the 
preceding  trance  was  dissipated  by 
doubt,  the  poet  takes  occasion  to  de- 
fine the  relation  of  doubt  to  faith,  in 
words  which  have  found  a  universal 
echo  in  the  age.  He  has  committed 
himself  to  belief  in  eternal  things,  and 
will  follow  out  such  faith  to  its  great- 
est results.  But  faith,  which  must  ac- 
knowledge that  eternal  things  "  never 


1 66  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

can  be  proved,"  must  thereby  admit 
the  possibility  of  doubt.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  reverent  conquest  of  doubt 
may  minister  a  stronger  faith  than 
could  well  exist  had  there  been  no 
doubt ;  whereas  knowledge,  be  it  ever 
so  clear,  does  not  work  practical  good 
character,  as  does  faith. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  this 
poem  narrates  the  spiritual  experience 
of  Arthur  Hallam  himself.  While  this 
cannot  well  be  taken  for  granted,  it 
may  be  interesting  to  give  such  data 
as  are  obtainable,  and  leave  the  ques- 
tion, which  is  not  an  important  one, 
to  the  reader's  judgment.  The  pas- 
sage where  Tennyson  recognizes  in 
Arthur 

"The  faith,  the  vigor,  bold  to  dwell 
On  doubts  that  drive  the  coward  back," 

and  the  one  where  he  describes  Ar- 
thur's as  a  character  of 

"  Seraphic  intellect  and  force 
To  seize  and  throw  the  doubts  of  man," 

would  seem  to  indicate  much  more 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  1 6? 

calmness  of  assured  strength  than  the 
poem  before  us  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
this  calmness  may  have  been  reached 
through  severe  struggle.  Would  not 
this  passage,  from  Arthur  Hallam's 
"  Remains  "  indicate  such  spiritual  con- 
flict ? 

"  I  do  but  mock  me  with  these  questionings. 
Dark,  dark,  yea,  '  irrecoverably  dark,' 
Is  the  soul's  eye  :  yet  how  it  strives  and  battles 
Thorough  th'  impenetrable  gloom  to  fix 
That  master  light,  the  secret  truth  of  things, 
Which  is  the  body  of  the  infinite  God!  " 

One  of  Arthur's  early  friends  also 
writes  :  "  Perhaps  I  ought  to  mention 
that  when  I  first  knew  him  he  was 
subject  to  occasional  fits  of  mental 
depression,  which  gradually  grew  few- 
er and  fainter,  and  had  at  length,  I 
thought,  disappeared,  or  merged  in  a 
peaceful  Christian  faith.  I  have  wit- 
nessed the  same  in  other  ardent  and 
adventurous  minds,  and  have  always 
looked  upon  them  as  the  symptom, 
indeed,  of  an  imperfect  moral  state, 
but  one  to  which  the  finest  spirits, 


1 68  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

during  the  process  of  their  purifica- 
tion, are  most  subject." 

xcvii.  2.  Love's  communion  good  though 
personal  intercourse  fails.  Illustrated 
by  the  case  of  a  wife  who  has  loved 
truly  once  and  been  loved  ;  and  though 
her  lord  is  now  absorbed  in  things 
apart,  she  is  certain  that  his  love,  as 
truly  as  her  own,  exists  yet  undimin- 
ished. 

xcvin.  3.  Vienna  unvisited  The  fatal  sig- 
nificance of  that  city,  as  the  place 
where  Arthur  died,  is  brought  vividly 
before  the  poet's  mind,  and  the  thought 
of  it  seems  to  be  a  sadly  disturbing  in- 
fluence in  his  new  communion. 

SECOND  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
DEATH.     XCIX. 

xcix.  This  day  breaks  in,  as  before  (Ixxii.), 
with  the  renewal  of  sorrow  in  the  mem- 
ory of  an  irreparable  loss.  It  comes 
not,  as  did  the  other,  in  storm,  but  in 
the  peaceful  weather  and  associations 
of  early  autumn,  reminding  of 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  169 

"  Meadows  breathing  of  the  past, 
And  woodlands  holy  to  the  dead." 

It  may  be  noted  that  here  the  associ- 
ations are  associations  of  place,  where- 
as in  the  former  anniversary  they  were 
associations  of  time;  and  this  corre- 
sponds with  the  poet's  general  mi- 
nute attention  to  congruities  of  sur- 
rounding; as  we  see  in  the  poems  im- 
mediately succeeding,  which  describe 
the  emotions  associated  with  a  change 
of  residence,  and  in  the  coming  Christ- 
mas-tide, which  notes  the  influences 
due  to  "  change  of  place,  like  growth 
in  time."  Both  time  and  place  are  to 
have  due  influence  recognized  in  the 
poem.  In  the  present  anniversary  we 
see  also  this  advance  on  the  feelings 
that  characterized  the  former :  the  sor- 
row there  renewed  was  centred  in  self, 
while  this  sorrow  is  touched  with  sym- 
pathy for  all  who  have  similar  sad 
memories. 

As  the  former  anniversary  gave  oo 


1 70  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

casion  to  dispose  of  the  last  regret 
regarding  Arthur's  untimely  death,  so 
this  gives  similar  occasion  to  dispose 
of  the  last  obstacle  to  the  full  peace 
of  the  present.  This  obstacle  is  in- 
dicated in  the  preceding  poem.  It 
is  the  unrest  caused  by  those  things 
which  awaken  most  vividly  his  loss, 
illustrated  by  the  poet's  aversion  to 
Vienna.  His  peace  cannot  be  called 
complete  so  long  as  a  single  spot  on 
the  earth  is  capable  of  impairing  it. 
The  succeeding  four  poems  dispose  of 
this  obstacle  and  prepare  the  mind  for 
the  next  cycle. 

The  poet  is  about  to  leave  his  na- 
tive Lincolnshire,  where  every  spot 
suggests  some  memory  of  his  friend, 
and  with  double  vividness  now  that  he 
is  on  the  eve  of  leaving.  These  mem- 
ories, which  almost  cause  his  sorrow 
to  begin  anew,  must  be  met  and  re- 
solved before  the  growing  peace  of 
mind  is  complete. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM. 
A.    FAREWELL   TO    OLD   SCENES. 

1.  The  old  place,  as  the   poet   is 
about  to  leave  it,  awakens  memories 
of  the  days  when  Arthur  enjoyed  its 
associations ;  and  the  thought  is  as  if 
he  had  died  afresh,  and  sorrow  must 
begin  anew. 

2.  Thought  of  how  these  old  asso- 
ciations  of  the   place  will  lose  their 
sacredness,  and  how  new  associations 
and   other    memories   will    gradually 
come     to    cluster    around    the    same 
scenes. 

3.  The  pleasant  thought  of  the  po- 
et's  own  childhood  and  the  sad  thought 
of  his  later  bereavement,  which  rise 
alike  from  the   contemplation  of  the 
old  home,  strive  together  like  "two 
spirits  of  a  diverse  love,"  until  they 
mingle  at  last  into  one  picture,  in  which 
he  seems  to  view  both  from  afar ;  and 
thus  his  agitation  passes  into  tender 
melancholy. 


1/2  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

B.    CONTENT   TO    ENTER   NEW  SCENES. 

cm.  A  dream  on  the  last  night  spent  in 

the  old  home  cheers  the  poet  with  hope 
of  what  is  to  be. 

As  in  his  dream  he  is  summoned  to 
leave  the  hall  where  he  has  dwelt  with 
maidens  who  honored  the  dead  with 
song  "  of  what  is  wise  and  good  and 
graceful,"  and  passes  with  them  down 
a  widening  river  toward  the  great  sea, 
the  scenery  becomes  grander,  and  all 
grow  in  majesty  of  thought  and  spirit ; 
and  when  at  last  Arthur  himself  is 
seen,  greatened  and  glorified,  all  are 
grown  ready  to  meet  him,  and  all  sail 
away  together  on  the  great  deep. 

This  dream  both  satisfies  the  thought 
of  the  present  cycle,  by  dispelling  the 
last  cloud  of  unrest,  and  stands  as  a 
hint  of  the  world's  great  future,  which 
the  coming  cycle  is  to  portray. 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  173 

STforb  Cpcfe. 

CIV.-CXXXI. 

"The  love 
Toward  which  all  being  solemnly  doth  move." 

A.  H.  HALLAM. 

To  the  Cycle  of  the  Past  and  the 
Cycle  of  the  Present  is  now  added  T 
"  the  closing  cycle  rich  in  good,"  the 
Cycle  of  the  Future.  Besides  its  ad- 
vance in  time,  we  notice  also,  as  in 
the  preceding  cycle,  an  advance  in 
breadth  ;  and  the  future  of  which  this 
cycle  sings,  no  longer  confined  to  a 
single  new  friendship  or  a  narrow  cir- 
cle, takes  in  the  whole  race  of  men, 
as  the  poet  sees  it  raised  and  ennobled 
by  the  same  love  which  has  hitherto 
wrought  him  such  good.  He  sees  it 
as  the  "  crowning  race,"  greatened  by 
all  the  achievements  of  the  ages,  and 
is  content  to  have  wrought  in  sorrow 
for  their  upbuilding  ;  — 


174  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

"  For  all  we  thought  and  loved  and  did, 
And  hoped,  and  suffer'd,  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit." 

The  friend  whom  the  poem  commem- 
orates is  connected  with  this  greater 
future  by  being  taken  as  its  type,  as 
one  appearing  in  advance  of  his  time, 
from  whose  pure  life  men  may  gather 
wisdom  and  be  helped  thereby  to- 
ward the  ideal  of  manhood.  See  Epi- 
logue, stanza  35.  In  accordance  with 
this  plan  the  course  of  poems  distinc- 
tive of  the  cycle  (cix.-cxiv.)  is  taken 
up  with  a  portrayal  of  his  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart,  as  these  already  were 
in  themselves,  and  as  they  were  in 
promise. 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE.     CIV.,   CV. 
i.    Christmas  eve.      The  surround- 

civ. 

ings  are  strange,  and  in  this  unaccus- 
tomed place  there  is  nothing  to  keep 
alive  the  memory  of  past  joys  or  be- 
reavements, 
cv.          2.  Christmas  present.   In  the  second 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  175 

Christmas-tide  the  lapse  of  time  had 
made  Christmas  observances  pleasant 
for  their  own  sake ;  now  the  "  change 
of  place,  like  growth  of  time,"  has 
wrought  to  cause  the  interest  of  the 
usual  customs  to  die ;  as  was  indeed 
predicted  at  the  first  Christmas-tide. 
But  in  this  dying  of  use  and  wont  after 
they  have  been  once  revived  there  is 
no  sign  of  retrogression  in  the  thought; 
rather,  the  usual  customs  have  lost 
their  life  because  the  spirit  of  Christ- 
mas hope  has  become  so  settled  and 
significant  that  the  ancient  form  can 
no  more  express  its  meaning.  The 
cheer  of  this  season  not  only  eclipses 
the  grief,  but  rejects  all  formal  demon- 
strations of  joy  as  unnecessary  and 
meaningless. 


Henceforth  the  thought  advances 
into  the  greater  future  which  it  is  ours 
to  work  for,  and  which  the  world  shall 
see  when  men  come  to  cherish  and  ex- 


176  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

emplify  such  qualities  as  the  deceased 
has  already  shown  in  type. 

A  striking  characteristic  of  the  com- 
ing cycle  is  that  all  significant  sea- 
sons,—  New  Year,  Springtide,  — which 
have  represented  the  spirit  of  preced- 
ing cycles,  are  reintroduced  with  fresh 
significance;  as  if  everything  were 
in  some  way  suggestive  of  the  great- 
ness that  is  to  be. 

NEW   YEAR.     CVI. 

^  This  poem  introduces  the  thought 

of  the  present  cycle  in  brief,  as  in 
previous  cycles  has  been  done  by 
groups  of  poems.  In  this  song  the 
poet's  individual  desires  for  the  future 
are  inseparably  interwoven  with  his 
longings  for  the  reign  of  new  princi- 
ples and  new  character,  for  the  intro- 
duction of  better  customs,  and  the 
banishment  of  unrighteousness,  until 
humanity  shall  reproduce  in  a  regen- 
erated society  the  greatness  and  char- 
acter of  Christ.  The  "  Christ  that  is 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  177 

to  be,"  whose  name  forms  the  culmi- 
nation of  the  song,  is  evidently  viewed 
as  the  Christ-like  humanity.  It  is  the 
same  ideal  that  was  portrayed  by  a 
Christian  apostle  eighteen  centuries 
before,  in  Ephesians  iv.  13 :  "  Till  we 
all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 

BIRTHDAY    OF    THE    DECEASED 
(FEBRUARY   i).     CVII. 

In  the  first  cycle  Springtide  brought  cvii. 
the  cheer  of  a  new  season;  in  the 
second  New  Year  heralded  a  new 
round  of  seasons  ;  and  now  this  char- 
acterizing occasion  of  the  third  cycle 
suggests  a  new  life,  a  noble  life,  which, 
having  been  lived  once,  may  furnish 
the  model  for  noble  lives  to  come. 
The  present  anniversary  illustrates, 
as  has  already  been  intimated  in  the 
Christmas-tide,  how  in  this  cycle  the 
spirit  of  hope  has  overcome.  In  the 

12 


1 78  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

first  cycle  the  suggestiveness  of  the 
blooming  season  must  make  its  way 
from  without  into  a  reluctant  mood ; 
in  the  second  cycle  the  calmer  mood 
and  the  promising  season  answer  spon- 
taneously to  each  other ;  but  here  in 
the  closing  cycle  the  hopeful  mood  has 
so  overcome  the  influences  of  season 
and  weather  that  even  the  bitter  win- 
try day  can  have  no  disturbing  effect 
on  the  confirmed  cheer  within,  —  the 
mind's  peace  is  sufficient  to  itself,  and 
not  dependent. 

"  Be  cheerful-minded,  talk  and  treat 
Of  all  things  ev'n  as  he  were  by." 


The  thought  characteristic  of  this 
cycle  now  ensues,  introduced  by  a 
poem  in  which  the  bereaved  expresses 
his  resolution  to  forsake  individual 
sorrows  and  individual  aims,  and  from 
his  experience  to  reap  in  the  broader 
world  the  fruit  that  comes  from  sor- 
row interpreted  by  love  ;  and  that  no 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  179 

longer  in  speculations  on  unseen  mys- 
teries, but  "  under  human  skies." 

Looking  toward  that  broader  future, 
the  thought  shapes  itself  on  what  the 
birthday  naturally  suggests  :  the  char- 
acter of  the  deceased,  its  worth  and 
promise.  He  is  regarded  as  a  type 
of  the  nobler  race  that  is  to  be ;  and 
therefore  from  every  line  of  his  char- 
acter some  instructive  example  may 
be  drawn. 

Six  poems  portray  at  length  the 
character  of  the  deceased.  These 
divide  themselves  into  two  groups, 
which  represent  respectively  its  aspect 
as  regards  the  individual,  and  its  as- 
pect as  regards  the  race. 


180  TENNYSOWS  IN  MEMORIAM. 


FIRST  GROUP. 

WISDOM    GATHERED    FROM   A    REMINIS- 
CENCE  OF  WHAT  THE   DECEASED  WAS 

IN   HIS   PERSONAL  CHARACTER.   CIX.- 
CXII. 

"  'T  is  held  that  sorrow  makes  us  wise, 
Whatever  wisdom  sleep  with  thee." 

i.  His  intellect  and  character,  as 
showing  a  well  -  rounded  manhood, 
generously  endowed  with  strength  and 
grace,  —  illustrating  his  own  ideal,  — 

"  How  hard  it  were  to  find 
A  human  bosom  of  such  stubborn  truth, 
Yet  tempered  so  with  yielding  courtesy." 

It  may  be  interesting,  in  connection 
with  these  poems  describing  Arthur 
Hallam's  character,  to  give  some  par- 
allel testimonies  from  his  early  friends, 
taken  from  the  Memoir  in  A.  H.  Hal- 
lam's  "Remains."  His  father,  the 
editor  of  that  volume,  writes,  "  From 
the  earliest  years  of  this  extraordinary 
young  man,  his  premature  abilities 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  l8l 

were  not  more  conspicuous  than  an 
almost  faultless  disposition,  sustained 
by  a  more  calm  self-command  than 
has  often  been  witnessed  in  that  season 
of  life.  The  sweetness  of  temper  that 
distinguished  his  childhood,  became, 
with  the  advance  of  manhood,  an 
habitual  benevolence,  and  ultimately 
ripened  into  that  exalted  principle  of 
love  towards  God  and  man,  which  ani- 
mated and  almost  absorbed  his  soul 
during  the  latter  period  of  his  life.  .  .  . 
He  seemed  to  tread  the  earth  as  a 
spirit  from  some  better  world." 

2.    His   influence   on   others,  —  to      ex. 
delight  and  inspire  those  who  love  the 
good,   to  strengthen  the  feeble  and 
fearful,  to  shame  all  evil  and  untruth. 

This  and  the  following  are  from  his 
early  friends  and  college  mates.  "  He 
was  fond  of  society;  the  society  (at 
least)  which  he  could  command  at 
Cambridge.  He  moved  chiefly  in  a 
set  of  men  of  literary  habits,  remark- 
able for  free  and  friendly  intercourse, 


1 82  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

whose  characters,  talents,  and  opinions, 
of  every  complexion,  were  brought  into 
continual  collision,  all  license  of  dis- 
cussion permitted,  and  no  offense 
taken.  And  he  was  looked  up  to  by 
all  as  the  life  and  grace  of  the  party. 
...  I  look  back  upon  those  days  with 
unmixed  comfort;  not  a  word  ever 
passed  between  us  that  I  need  now 
wish  unsaid." 

ex,.  3.  The  genuineness  and  true  nobil- 
ity of  his  character.  Gentler  even 
than  he  seemed,  in  all  noble  manners, 
he  illustrated  well  "  the  grand  old 
name  of  gentleman." 

"  No  man  tempered  wit  and  wisdom 
so  gracefully ;  no  man  was  so  perfectly 
made  to  be  admired  for  his  excellent 
accomplishments ;  to  be  revered  for 
his  true  heart  and  chivalrous  princi- 
ple ;  to  be  delighted  in  for  the  sweet- 
ness, and  gayety,  and  graciousness  of 
his  life  and  conversation ;  to  be  loved 
for  all  his  qualities." 

am.         4.  The  reserve  of  power  and  char- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  183 

acter  in  his  nature,  which  caused  his 
friends  ever  to  hope  greater  things  of 
him. 

"  We  have  invariably  agreed  that  it 
was  of  him  above  all  his  contempo- 
raries that  great  and  lofty  expectations 
were  to  be  formed."  "It  seems  due 
to  his  memory  that  it  should  be  known 
how  far  what  he  had  done  falls  short 
of  what  a  few  years  hence  he  would 
have  done,  —  how  far  his  vast  and 
various  powers  yet  were  from  having 
attained  their  full  stature  and  mature 
proportions." 


1 84  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

SECOND  GROUP. 

WISDOM  GATHERED  FROM  THE  CON- 
SIDERATION OF  WHAT  THE  DECEASED 
WAS  AND  WOULD  HAVE  BECOME,  IN 
HIS  ADAPTEDNESS  TO  ACT  ON  THE 
WORLD.  CXIII.,  CXIV. 

"  T  is  held  that  sorrow  makes  us  wise  ; 
Yet  how  much  wisdom  sleeps  with  thee 
Which  not  alone  had  guided  me, 
But  served  the  seasons  that  may  rise." 

ocm.  i.  His  rare  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart  would  have  made  him  an  impor- 
tant influence  on  his  age,  equal  to  all 
emergencies. 

"  When  much  time  has  elapsed,  and 
when  most  bereavements  would  be  for- 
gotten, he  will  still  be  remembered, 
and  his  place,  I  fear,  will  be  felt  to  be 
still  vacant,  singularly  as  his  mind  was 
calculated  by  its  native  tendencies  to 
work  powerfully  and  for  good  in  an 
age  full  of  import  to  the  nature  and 
destinies  of  man." 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  185 

2.  He  was  a  worthy  exemplifier  of     oov. 
that  higher  Wisdom  which  in  this  ea- 
ger age  Knowledge  needs  to  keep  her 
within  proper  bounds. 

The  poet  thus  takes  occasion  to  de- 
fine his  idea  of  wisdom  as  the  sup- 
plement and  regulator  of  knowledge, 
without  which  regulator  the  latter  is 
a  danger,  and  no  blessing.  This  poem 
expands  the  idea  expressed  in  the 
Prologue,  stanza  7. 

SPRINGTIDE.    CXV.,  CXVI. 

The  last  note  of  time  in  the  poem. 
Standing  immediately  after  those 
poems  in  which  is  defined,  in  terms 
of  Arthur's  character,  the  greatness 
which  the  world  needs,  it  adds  to 
them  the  suggestiveness  of  the  bud- 
ding year.  The  special  object  of  this 
Springtide  seems  to  be  to  indicate  the 
permanent  mood  in  which  the  forego- 
ing thought  has  left  the  poet ;  and 
thus  it  corresponds  to  the  groups  of 
poems,  Ixvi.-lxxi.,  in  the  first  cycle, 


1 86  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

and  xcvi.-xcviii.,  in  the  second  cycle. 
It  also  introduces  the  final  application 
and  conclusion  of  the  whole  thought ; 
and  so  with  springtide  the  poem  leaves 
us  passing  on  into  a  new  era  of  hope. 

cxv.  i.  The  year  awakes  from  the  frosts 

of  winter  into  the  life  and  bloom  of 
spring.  So  awakes  regret,  and  buds 
and  blossoms  with  the  rest. 

cxvi.  2.  But  just  as  the  year's  awaking  is 
the  awaking  of  "life  re-orient  out  of 
dust,"  so  the  feeling  that  awakes  with 
it  is  not  all,  nor  predominantly,  regret. 
It  is  rather  anticipation  of  a  strong 
bond  to  be,  a  feeling  of  certitude  in 
the  blessed  future. 

Having  drawn  the  lesson  from  the 
achievements  and  the  promise  of  his 
friend's  life,  and  used  the  suggestive- 
ness  of  springtide  to  illustrate  his  set- 
tled attitude  of  hope,  the  poet  now 
draws  the  application,  for  himself  and 
every  one. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  187 

THE   WORK   OF   THE   DAYS  TO  COME. 
CXVII.,   CXVIII. 

1.  For  the  bereaved  himself.     To     cxvn. 
make  every  day  and  every  hour  con- 
tribute  some  good  thing  toward  the 
blessedness  of  his  coming  union  with 
Arthur. 

2.  For  every  one,  as  a  representa-    cxvm. 
tive  of  humanity.     Suggested  by  the 
progress  of  life  on  the  globe,  from  the 
lowest  organisms  up  to  man,  who,  an- 
swering to  that  type  of  progress,  has 

such  dignity  of  nature  that  he  is  sure 
to  be  either  the  herald  of  a  still  higher 
race,  or,  failing  this,  to  show  the  great- 
ness of  his  nature  even  in  its  ruins. 
It  is  incumbent  on  every  one,  there- 
fore, to  subdue  the  lower  nature  and 
work  upward  ever  in  the  higher. 

DEFINING-POINT  —  END.     CXIX. 

The  progress  in  hope  made   since      cxix. 
the  first  crushing  blow  of  bereavement 
is  indicated  by  the  different  emotions 


1 88  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

experienced  on  visiting  the  former 
residence  of  the  deceased.  Compare 
poem  vii.  No  longer  in  confused  de- 
spair, but  in  peaceful  hope,  the  poet 
comes,  thinking  on  the  departed  friend 
with  blessings ;  and  all  surroundings 
of  weather  and  scenery  answer  to  the 
calm  within. 

As  the  first  defining-point  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  prospect,  so  this  is  suc- 
ceeded by  a  retrospect,  which  looks 
back  over  the  whole  way  that  the  poet 
has  come,  and  gathers  up  some  of  its 
most  significant  results.  To  this  is 
added  the  summary  and  conclusion  of 
the  whole  work. 

RETROSPECT  AND  CONCLUSION. 
CXX.-CXXXI. 

The  Retrospect  shows  an  interest- 
ing parallelism  to  the  Prologue,  in  this 
respect,  that  it  has  reached  the  sum- 
mit of  progress  occupied  by  the  latter, 
so  that  both  view  the  victory  over  de- 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  ME  MORI  AM.  189 

spair  and  doubt  as  gained.  The  par- 
allelism runs,  however,  in  inverse  or- 
der. The  Prologue,  beginning  with 
prayer,  looks  directly  to  that  immortal 
Love  in  whose  personal  might  the  vic- 
tory has  been  gained ;  and  from  this 
view  of  heaven  it  advances  to  recog- 
nize the  woes  and  needs  of  earth,  as 
they  are  exemplified  in  the  experience 
which  In  Memoriam  records.  At  this 
point  the  poem  takes  up  the  thought, 
and  passes  through  the  world  of  sor- 
rowful experience,  seeking  heavenly 
things  by  faith.  To  review  this  long 
journey  stands  now  the  Retrospect; 
and  this  passes  by  a  few  rapid  strokes 
to  recognize  the  love  by  which  the 
poet's  faith  has  been  actuated  as  the 
immortal  Love  whom  the  Prologue 
celebrates,  which  Love  is  accepted  as 
Lord  of  all,  and  worshiped,  as  at  the 
beginning.  So  prayer  and  achieve- 
ment are  united  in  one. 


1 90  TENNYSOWS  IN  MEMORIAM. 

A.  HOW     THE      PAST      CONFLICT      HAS 
PROVED   THE   DIGNITY   OF   MAN. 

cxx.  Such   a  fight  of   faith   with   death 

proves  man  infinitely  more  than  any 
mere  materialistic  theory  can  explain, 
and  born  to  a  high  divine  destiny, 
which  it  is  his  glory  to  realize. 

B.  SURVEY   OF   THE   RESULTS    REACHED 
IN   THE    THREE     GREAT     CYCLES     OF 
THE    BEREAVED   SOUL'S   PROGRESS. 

cxx,.  i.  The  Cycle  of  the  Past.  Sug- 
gested by  the  thought  of  the  planet 
Venus,  the  star  of  love,  which,  being 
both  evening  star  and  morning  star, 
illustrates  in  one  both  the  rising  of 
love  on  the  darkened  and  despairing 
life,  to  cheer  its  night,  and  the  rising 
of  love  on  the  life  progressing  in  hope, 
to  herald  its  morning. 

2.  The  Cycle  of  the  Present.  Rem- 
iniscence of  the  culminating  scene  in 
the  second  cycle,  described  in  poem 
xcv.,  where  an  hour  of  communion  was 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  19 1 

enjoyed  with  the  immortal  dead.  That 
same  nearness  is  again  desired  as  a 
permanent  blessing. 

3.  The  Cycle  of  the  Future.  From  cxxm. 
the  general  view,  characteristic  of  the 
third  cycle,  of  the  development  of 
earth  and  man  (see  poems  cxviii., 
cxx.),  the  poet  draws  a  suggestion  of 
his  own  contrast  to  inanimate  nature  ; 
in  that,  while  the  most  solid  things  of 
earth  pass,  he  is  conscious  of  an  undy- 
ing spiritual  nature,  in  which  he  will 
dwell. 

C.      HOW     THE      DIVINE      POWER     WAS 
FOUND. 

In  the  last  poem  is  expressed  the  cxxiv. 
consciousness  of  a  spiritual  nature 
which  is  immortal.  This  recognition 
of  conscious  immortality  is  naturally 
followed  by  recognition  of  Him  who  is 
the  Author  of  immortality,  the  uncom- 
prehended  One  ;  who  is  found  not  by 
reason,  or  speculation,  but  by  faith 
and  love.  As  the  most  important  ex- 


TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

perience  in  which  God  was  found,  and 
the  type  of  all  the  rest,  allusion  is 
made  in  stanzas  5  and  6  to  that  hour 
of  most  bewildered  doubt,  described 
in  poems  liv.-lvi.,  when  the  poet  fled 
from  Nature  to  God,  and  found  there- 
in a  power  to  mould  and  sanctify  him. 

D.    THE    MINISTRY   OF    POESY. 

Poesy  has  acted  as  chorus,  to  in- 
terpret the  poet's  wayward  moods, 
whether  of  grief  or  joy,  and  turn  all 
to  good  account.  In  his  deepest  self 
the  poet  has  never  lost  hope  ;  he  has 
merely  used  the  song  to  guide  thought 
and  feeling  to  a  hopeful  end. 

E.    SUMMARY   OF   RETROSPECT. 

The  conclusion  to  which  the  Retro- 
spect has  conducted  is  summarized  in 
three  poems,  which  are  directed  re- 
spectively, as  the  course  of  the  poem 
has  been,  to  past,  present,  and  future. 

i.  The  sanctifier  of  the  past  glori- 
fied in  the  present.  "  Love  is  and  was 


STRUCTURE  OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  193 

my  Lord  and  King."  What  has  all 
along  been  cherished  as  a  spirit  with- 
in, to  guide  and  bless  and  interpret,  is 
now  recognized  as  the  master  power 
of  the  life. 

2.  The  unseen  Ruler  of  the  present.     CXXVH. 
It  is  the  same  Love,  whose  voice  pure 
hearts     can    hear    through    the   wild 
storms   of  human  passion  and  social 
change  ;    and   so   we   may   know,    as 
happy  spirits   know,  that  in   spite  of 
conflict  all  is  well.     From  the  allusion 

in  stanza  2  it  would  seem  that  this 
poem  was  inspired  by  the  French  rev- 
olutionary movements  of  1848. 

3.  The  hope  for  the  world's  future.     CXxvin. 
This   too    lies   in   Love,   which   shall 

make  its   power  more  felt,  and  shall 
outlive  the  reactions  of  onward  time, 
working  out  of  all  diversities  a  grander 
unity,  until  its  divine  end  is  attained. 
'3 


194  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

CONCLUDING   INVOCATION. 

In  this  Invocation  the  idea  of  Love 
reaches  its  highest.  First  beheld  and 
cherished  as  a  moulding,  sanctifying 
power  within,  then  recognized  as 
Lord  and  King  above,  it  is  now  seen 
to  involve  yet  more  :  it  becomes  in 
a  deep  sense  incarnate  in  manhood. 
The  idea  may  perhaps  best  be  ex- 
pressed in  Arthur  Hallam's  own 
words.  "  The  tendency  of  love,"  he 
once  wrote,  "  is  towards  a  union  so  in- 
timate as  virtually  to  amount  to  iden- 
tification ;  when,  then,  by  affection  to- 
wards Christ  we  have  become  blended 
with  His  being,  the  beams  of  Eternal 
Love  falling,  as  ever,  on  the  one  be- 
loved object  will  include  us  in  Him, 
and  their  returning  flashes  of  love  out 
of  His  personality  will  carry  along  with 
them  some  from  our  own,  since  ours 
has  become  confused  with  His,  and 
so  shall  we  be  one  with  Christ  and 
through  Christ  with  God."  Follow- 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  195 

ing  such  an  idea,  the  poet  recognizes 
Arthur,  who  was  true  to  divine  Love 
here,  as  now  living  in  God  ;  and  he  is 
here  addressed  in  an  invocation  which 
recognizes  his  nature  as,  while  not  less 
perfect  in  itself,  inseparable  from  the 
divine. 

1.  The   immortal   friend,   in   whom      cxxix. 
divine  Love  has  assumed  a  mysterious 
personality,  is  addressed  as  the  type 

from  which  the  world's  ideal  may  be 
interpreted. 

2.  The  earthly  friend  sees  all   the      cxxx. 
world  of  nature  filled  by  Arthur's  hal- 
lowing presence,   and   his   own    love 
growing  by  loyalty  into  the  same  di- 
vine image. 

3.  Finally.     A  prayer  to  the  Love     cxxxi. 
over  all,  who  is  recognized,  as  in  the 
Prologue,  as  Lord  of  our  wills. 

"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how ; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  thine." 

May  His  power  flow  through  our 
deeds,  being  appropriated  by  faith, 
until  we  outlive  all  changes  and 


196  TENNYSON'S  IN  ME  MORI  AM. 

chances  of  time,  made  holy  by  trust 
in  unseen  things. 


EPILOGUE. 

Epilogue.  The  poem  that  began  with  death, 
over  which  in  its  long  course  it  has 
found  love  triumphant,  now  ends  with 
marriage,  that  highest  earthly  illustra- 
tion of  crowned  and  completed  love. 
The  Epilogue  is  a  marriage-song,  or 
Epithalamium,  celebrating  the  "  wed- 
ding of  a  younger  sister,  Cecilia  Ten- 
nyson, who,  about  the  year  1842,  mar- 
ried Edmund  Law  Lushington,  some- 
time Professor  of  Greek  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Glasgow."  *  From  the  similarity 
of  the  address  in  stanza  i  to  that  in 
poem  Ixxxv.  2,  it  would  seem  that  the 
bridegroom  is  the  friend  whom  the  poet 
welcomed  in  the  place  of  the  de- 
ceased. 

1  Quoted  from  Gatty :  Key  lo  Tennyson'1  s  In  Memo- 
riant^  p.  147. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMORIAM.  197 

It  is,  I  think,  a  superficial  criticism 
which  says,  "  The  whole  poem  is 
pleasant  and  jocund,  but  scarcely  har- 
monizes with  the  lofty  solemnity  of  In 
Memoriam."  Occurring  at  the  end  of 
the  cycle  in  which  the  poet  has  found 
such  peacefulness  of  hope  from  the 
resolution,  "  I  will  not  shut  me  from 
my  kind,"  it  seems  eminently  fitting 
that  the  close  should  be  pleasant  and 
jocund,  in  the  fully  recovered  joys  of 
earth.  The  poem  also  affords  occa- 
sion to  bring  in  review  before  us  the 
leading  features  and  influences  of  In 
Memoriam,  which,  indeed,  have  be- 
come so  familiar  and  well  defined  that 
we  may  almost  recognize  them  as  dra- 
matis persona. 

\.  Love,  which  survives  regret  and 
the  grave,  has  recovered  her  peace  in 
this  world,  has  grown  greater  and 
holier,  and  yet  by  no  means  less  loyal 
to  the  dead  ;  and  now,  no  more  dis- 
turbed by  the  past,  she  devotes  herself 
to  the  innocent  joys  of  the  present. 


198  TENNYSON'S  IN  MEMORIAM. 

2.  Remembrance   of    the   dead    is 
cherished,  not  sacrificed ;  the  dead  is 
thought  of  as  living,  and  perhaps  pres- 
ent on  this  occasion,  shedding  unseen 
blessings  on  this  coronation  of  love. 

3.  The  living  present  is  suggested 
by  the  marriage-bells  and  festivities  ; 
a  present  in  which  love  finds  its  pur- 
est expression. 

4.  The  greater  future  is  suggested 
in  the  thought  of  the  new  life  that  may 
rise  from  this  union,  a  new-born  soul, 
who  will  look  on  a  race  more  advanced 
than  this,  and  contribute  to  its  great- 
ness, and  so  be  a  link  between  us  and 
the  perfect  future. 

5.  Finally,  a  view  of  the  far  future 
perfected.     Its  character :  the  view  of 
knowledge  eye   to  eye,  the   complete 
subjugation  in  our  nature  of  all  that  is 
brutish,  the  flower  and  fruit  of  which 
the  present  contains   the   seed.      Its 
type :  the  life  of  Arthur,  who  appeared 
in  advance  of  his  time.     Its  culmina- 
tion :  life  in  God. 


STRUCTURE   OF  IN  MEMO  R I  AM.  199 

So  again  the  thought  is  subjected  to 
the  interpreting  light  of  God  and  im- 
mortality, which  idea,  reigning  through- 
out the  poem,  has  made  In  Memoriam 
the  most  distinctively  theological  poem 
of  the  century. 

"  That  God,  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 


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